NoFlag Rebellion
by Sarapsys
Summary: From unquestioning obedience to a no-flag rebellion: torn between conflicting duties to family, country, and love, a young woman has to grow up and make her own decisions.
1. Companion

**AN: Avatar TLA does not belong to me, obviously.**

**So in my brief time of lurking around in the ATLA fandom, I've encountered a remarkable level of antagonism toward the Zuko/Mai canon pairing, and just generally toward Mai as a character. I get the impression it's because it stands in the way of 'Zutara' and because it is a 'boring' pairing. I kind of think that's a little shallow-minded, tbh, so I thought I'd make a reluctant foray into romance-ish writing, and put my own spin on both Mai and her relationship with Zuko.**

**Hope you enjoy.

* * *

  
**

**Companion.**

It was no secret that her father had hoped Mai would at least turn out to be a firebender, after the letdown of not being a son. For all of his political skill, Lord Heizo was not very good at hiding his disappointment when she began walking and talking but showed no signs of special affinity with the Fire Nation's namesake element.

It had hardly been a likely thing. Heizo's mother had been a bender, and so was his brother, but the ability had never shown so much as a spark of itself in him, and the last firebender on Lady Jien's side was Mai's great-grandfather. If anything it was a bit of a long shot.

"It's alright," her mother would tell her, "You're so, so beautiful. You don't need to be a firebender to bring honor to the family."

From this Mai gathered that she ought to be upset, or disappointed that she had been cheated of her destiny, or something like that. Other than irritation at the fact that her mother occasionally tried to console her about it, however, Mai's general response to her failure to be what she was hoped to be (namely, a boy and a warrior) was more along the lines of,

"…Ok."

This bland acceptance was also her response to etiquette lessons, tutoring, and any gown her mother put in front of her or instruction her father gave her. There was nothing to protest, not really, in Mai's opinion. Mai didn't like people very much, so it wasn't as though she wanted to be out with friends, and though lessons and tutoring were boring, so was sitting around the house not in lessons or in tutoring, and as she had no preference she might as well be doing the one that would result in her father getting her this or that trinket she wanted. The only real preference she had in clothing was 'not pastels', which was never a problem because after one look at her four-year-old daughter in the pale yellow dress chosen for dinner one evening, Lady Jien declared that it made her look sickly and afterward stuck to darker hues, which, she claimed, 'show off your striking complexion, dear.'

As for her father's instructions, they were more or less 'Look pretty, be polite, and don't speak until someone asks you a question.' Being pretty took no effort, poor etiquette annoyed her, and it wasn't as though she had anything to say to her parents' boring, stuffy dinner guests.

That was how Mai reasoned it to herself, anyway.

And if she didn't seem to her mother to be especially happy with her lot, she didn't seem especially unhappy either, and any attempt to comfort her was met with blank indifference. Well, she was a strange, brooding child, Lady Jien often thought, but despite not being the perfect son, she was turning out to be the perfect daughter: a pretty doll that could be used to further her Lord Heizo's career and bring honor to the family.

Mai's father was one of the wealthiest and more powerful nobles in the Fire Nation capital. His ambition was to be able to adjust that to 'one of the wealthiest and _most_ powerful'. As a child with only a basic grasp of politics, Mai's understanding of the situation was that this meant if she wanted something, she had only to behave and do what Father said. Likewise, if Father wanted something, he had to behave and do what the Firelord said. The best way to obtain just about anything, no matter who you were, was passive obedience: sit down, shut up, and agree with what you're told.

So that's what she did. Life was simple, boring, and mechanical, and that was how it was supposed to be.

Then came Azula.

-o-

"Mai," said her mother one day, after she and her father had sat her down in the parlor, "We have some very exciting news."

The last time there had been 'exciting news', it had been something about a Lord So-and-So and a something-or-other that had been so exciting that Mai couldn't even remember it now. Not remotely interested, she sat poised on her cushion with her back held straight as she had been taught and her hands tucked into her sleeves to keep them warm, and waited to hear what was so great this time.

"The Firelord's son has accorded us a very high honor," Heizo said. "As you know, his daughter Azula is about your age. Lord Ozai has graciously condescended to offer you his hospitality at the Palace so that you may be her companion."

This was not at all what Mai had expected to hear. This actually directly affected her, required her to do something other than sit and be pretty. Go the Palace. Be the Princess's companion. Several thoughts crossed her mind, among them:

_Do I have to?_

_Will I have to talk to her?_

'_High honor' sound like a pretty way of saying 'orders.'_

_At least the Palace is somewhere else. Maybe it won't be boring._

"…Ok."

"You will be brought to the Palace on the second, third, and fifthdays of every week to spend the afternoon," her father went on, beaming proudly. "And any other time that the Princess requests your presence."

Goodie. Another person whose orders she was to follow. Mai wasn't going to form an opinion of the situation until she had had a chance to observe what it would actually entail, but she didn't much care for the idea of being at someone's beck and call.

"Ok."

Apparently this lack of enthusiasm was not befitting of all the 'high honor' involved, because her mother looked concerned, and her father's smile dropped into a stern frown.

"Mai, I wish you could take a more positive attitude toward this. This is not an opportunity that is extended to just anyone. Your friendship with the Firelord's granddaughter strengthens our ties to Palace. I expect that you will not spoil this prospect with a sour outlook."

"Yes, Father," Mai said, putting all of her 'positive attitude' into it, the result of which was a barely perceptible lift in pitch that almost immediately sank back down to her usual low murmur.

-o-

"It's normal to be nervous, dear," Jien told her repeatedly during the palanquin ride to the Palace.

"I'm not nervous, Mother."

Mai wasn't nervous. What she was was a little chilly and half-heartedly interested and increasingly irritated with her mother, who kept clasping and unclasping her hands and telling Mai not to be nervous every ten seconds.

Shrugging a little deeper into her mantle and wishing it would not be inappropriate to rub her hands together to warm them, Mai tuned her mother out and watched the approaching palace, red-flowered and hazy through the sheer palanquin curtains. She had been in the Palace's Great Plaza before, dragged along by her parents to attend the announcements of great military victories and for the Solstice parades, but not inside the Palace itself. It was one of the three homes in the capital larger their house, she knew (her father liked to mention it) but it seemed to Mai that it was rather cheating, since much of the Palace complex was the Temple and official meeting chambers and other places where grownups did boring stuff, and not actual living space. Still, it was impressively large and ornate, and she had to concede that it didn't seem so bad thus far.

"Now, mind your manners," her mother murmured to her as the palanquin slowed and began to climb the great front steps of the Palace.

Here it came again. As if they hadn't explained enough.

"Yes, Mother."

"Remember that this is the Princess, and not your peer. Her cousin will be Firelord someday. I want you to show her the highest respect. We wouldn't want to offend the Firelord or any of his household. You must be on your best behavior and make a good impression."

"Yes, Mother."

_I _know_, Mother. You and Father both have told me these things a dozen times. I'm not deaf_, Mai wanted very badly to say, but that would be impolite, and would no doubt earn her as much of a lecture as her mother had time for before they arrived.

"And Mai, do try to have fun," her mother said suddenly, patting her arm. "I'm sure you will enjoy yourself if you give this a chance."

Mai glanced up through her thick bangs. Mother was smiling, but it was an anxious smile, matched with a look in her eyes that seemed to say she wasn't sure quite how to read the daughter she'd raised to be this quiet little thing, and it bothered her. It was a helpless sort of look, and Mai found herself disapproving slightly of such a timid expression on the face of someone who claimed to aspire to power. It was inappropriate.

And honestly, she found it invasive whenever Mother suddenly wanted Mai to be happy, on top of everything else she asked of her.

Mildly alarmed at the sudden spike of anger that jolted up through her, Mai took a breath and let it out, then nodded dutifully.

"Ok."

Lady Jien wasn't quite satisfied with that response, but it was the only one Mai had, so she gave her daughter's arm another pat and waved daintily through the palanquin curtains while the girl exchanged bows with the chamberlain.

-o-

Mai expected actually meeting the Princess would be anticlimactic. It was not.

For starters, it turned out that she was not the only nobleman's daughter who had been summoned to entertain the Princess. She had caught glimpses of the royal family before at Palace ceremonies and parades, and the girl waiting in the inner courtyard where the chamberlain led Mai was not Azula. Her hair was lighter and longer, and she was wearing a lot of pink. Mai did not know the Princess personally but she always seemed from a distance to be a disciplined sort of person. She had difficulty imagining her in the sort of confection this girl was sporting.

Her immediate reaction was _Ugh, I have to talk to two people at _once_? _and then _At least there will be someone else to distract Azula if I don't want to say anything. _Mai didn't like things as messy as mixed feelings, so she decided the two canceled each other out and she was quite neutral about this other girl, until she opened her mouth.

"Hi! I'm Ty Lee. You must be Mai! I love your hair, it's so pretty."

"…Thanks," Mai managed, only her strict etiquette training keeping her from backing away several steps. This sort of enthusiasm was…unsightly. Ty Lee's smile was far too broad to be normal.

Mai bowed slightly so she could take break from seeing it, and the other girl bobbed back energetically. "Nice to meet you."

The courtyard garden was actually quite nice, with a pond, a fountain, several red maples in fall colors, and elegantly sculpted seats arranged among the flowerbeds and grass lawns. Stepping smoothly around Miss Smiley-Face, Mai made for one of the seats. Princess Azula would be brought to meet them soon, and she wanted to be composed for it. She was expected to make a good impression, after all.

To her annoyance, Ty Lee bounced along after her.

"I'm so excited to meet Princess Azula, aren't you? She's so beautiful, and I've heard she's amazingly talented. This is going to be so much fun. I think we'll all be best friends! Won't it be great?"

"Lovely," Mai murmured, sitting primly on a bench carved with coiled dragons and tucking her cold hands into her sleeves.

"What do you think she's like? I bet she's really nice." For no apparent reason, Ty Lee punctuated this declaration with a twirl, pink ruffles and long braid flying. Just her _existence_ was wearing Mai out.

"Maybe."

All of a sudden the twirling stopped and Ty Lee swooped down on her, making Mai lean back in alarm before she could control her posture. "Say, are you alright? You seem kind of down!"

"I'm fine, thank you," Mai said coolly, and hoped fervently that either Azula would show up soon or this bizarre girl would take the hint and _get out of her space_. Not that Mai had a clear idea of what she would do if she didn't, because she was supposed to behave, and either pushing Ty Lee or saying something mean to make her back off would certainly fall under the heading of 'not behaving.' If she was here, it was because she was also a nobleman's daughter (however poorly she might show it, with her unrestrained chatter and capering about), and Father would be angry with her if she offended Ty Lee's parents by offending their daughter.

"So…you must be the new playmates," a voice drawled from behind Ty Lee, making the girl whirl around again like a top.

"Princess Azula!" With speed that made Mai dizzy, Ty Lee plunged into a low bow.

"We are honored, Princess," Mai said, rising and bowing rather more sedately.

"As you should be," said the princess matter-of-factly.

Mai lifted her eyes to find that Azula was quite blatantly sizing them up. Mouth tied sideways in a little smirk and arms crossed over her chest, the princess examined them the same way she had seen Father examine rhinos or eelhounds he was considering for purchase. Mai took the opportunity to inconspicuously return the favor.

She was a little bit shorter than Mai, but she carried herself like she was much taller. Sharp-eyed and sharp-featured, with eyes that were inexplicably cold, though she knew Azula was a firebender. Mai was not one to make snap judgments about people, but she decided for now that the Princess carried the authority of her title rather than the other way around, and she approved of that.

Apparently the initial approval was mutual. "Well, I suppose you'll do," was the verdict. "Which one of you is Mai and which is Ty Lee?"

"I'm Ty Lee and this is Mai," Miss Smiley-Face chirped, flourishing to herself and then to the other. Mai suppressed a grimace.

"Charmed, I'm sure," the princess said, then glanced sidelong at Mai with a loaded expression. It was at that point that Mai realized that being Azula's companion would definitely not involve the sitting around and talking quietly about boring things and drinking tea that she had imagined as the most likely scenario.

In that brief look, Azula said plainly that she noticed the exuberance in Ty Lee that Mai had found so off-putting, but that unlike Mai, she found it amusing. Not amusing in an 'oh, isn't she cute?' sort of way, but in a scornful, kind of mean way. Princess Azula was laughing at Ty Lee, without the other girl seeming to realize it, and Mai was being invited to join her.

Well, obviously she couldn't offend the princess, but she _didn't_ find Ty Lee amusing, even in a mocking way, and there was still Ty Lee's parents to consider. Until she at least found out what their position in society was, her father would be displeased if she immediately alienated the other girl. So Mai offered up a slight, noncommittal shrug. That seemed to satisfy Azula for now.

Opaque dark-amber eyes glinting, the princess uncrossed her arms and planted her hands on her hips. "Well then, let's get to know each other, girls."

No, this would be about as boring as holding a tigersnake by the tail.

-o-

"I don't understand," Ty Lee was saying a short while later, her expressive face crinkled with worry. "Why are we doing this?"

"It's a test, Ty Lee," Azula told her. She had begun to adopt a slightly patronizing tone whenever talking to the other girl, talking just a hair slower and enunciating just a tiny bit more than normal. Mai had not yet quite decided what she thought of the princess's apparent enjoyment of tugging people around. While she could agree that Ty Lee seemed a little on the slow side, and as the Firelord's granddaughter Azula could pretty much do whatever she wanted, teasing her like that seemed like something of a waste of effort to Mai.

Like Lord Heizo, Azula had a drive to act on her impulses that Mai had, frankly, never indulged in. But Father seemed to move as though pulled, drawn by power like a dragonmoth to a torch, while Azula's motivation seemed to come from nowhere except within her own mind. Instead of being pulled she _pushed_, and now she was pushing Mai and Ty Lee, for no other reason than to see what they would do.

Perhaps it was just a part of being royalty, Mai supposed. After all, they were on top; she obeyed Father and Father obeyed the Firelord, but it wasn't as though Firelord Azulon had anyone to answer to.

"B-but…what if we get in trouble?"

Azula raised her eyebrows. "You can't get in trouble if you don't get caught."

The three of them were ducked behind a pillar in the great entrance hall to the Firelord's Throne Room. Mai was not entirely clear on the room-by-room policies of the Palace, but she was fairly certain that they were not supposed to be here, Princess or not.

"Look, Ty Lee, all I'm asking you to do is to go touch the door. It won't even take a whole minute. Or are you too scared to do this for me?" Azula said with a hint of impatience.

"No, I mean—of course I will," Ty Lee said hurriedly.

"Well then, what are you waiting for?"

Watching the other girl scamper quickly down the hall from the safety of their pillar, Mai began to feel a touch of apprehension. Perhaps being Azula's companion was less like holding a tigersnake, and more like being caught between the dragon and the inferno. It had honestly not occurred to her until Azula had issued her challenge that obeying her parents, obeying Azula, and obeying the Firelord might be conflicting guidelines.

On the other hand, while there was a slim chance she'd be caught playing around in off-limits areas of the Palace, there was no chance of Azula not sticking around to see if she went along with this, and though she couldn't yet be sure what the princess would do if she demurred, Mai got the impression it wouldn't be to just shrug it off.

Ty Lee was apparently quite nimble on her feet; in seconds she had dashed down the hall, tapped the edge of the great gilted doors, and was sprinting back. Gasping, she darted back behind the pillar. Mai noted with some disapproval that she was trembling.

"What about you, Mai?" Azula said, turning those burnt-amber eyes on her like a hawk eyeing its intended prey.

"Ok," Mai murmured, slipping her hands into her opposite sleeves.

Instead of running straight down the vaulted corridor as Ty Lee had, Mai walked calmly down the shadowy area behind the columns that lined it. Her mother disapproved of disruptive sounds, so she was in the habit of stepping softly, the suede soles of her boots barely making a sound against the marble floor. Doing her best to appear serene and probably, Mai thought, succeeding, she paused behind the last column and glanced back down the hall to make sure the way was clear. Azula and Ty Lee's heads peeked out at her, respectively predatory and anxious.

Straightening her back and brushing her hair over her shoulder, Mai stepped out into the lights of the main corridor, made the last eleven steps to the Firelord's door, and put her hand flat against it.

The beaten-gold embossment was unexpectedly hot under her cold fingers. Surprised, Mai lingered for an instant, and because she lingered she heard the footsteps approaching from the other side.

Ice-needled adrenaline shot through her veins so quickly she felt as though she had been petrified on the spot. Just barely she managed to flatten herself against the wall before the door opened, nearly smashing her.

Lord Ozai and Lady Ursa emerged, the door closing ponderously behind them and leaving Mai exposed, wide-eyed and frozen. Their backs were to her as they swept down the hall. Miraculously, they hadn't noticed her.

"—for weeks," Lord Ozai was muttering under his breath. "How much longer must this siege go before Father realizes Iroh is simply not fit to carry on a war?"

"Ozai, be gracious. Your brother is making great advances. Ba Sing Se is no simple nut to crack," Ursa said placatingly, with a small laugh.

As soon as they turned at the end of the hall, they would see her, Mai realized. This was so ridiculous and unbecoming. Father was never going to let her hear the end of how much shame she had brought on them, assuming Lord Ozai didn't toast her on the spot for her impunity.

Perhaps she could get behind the column and hide before they got to the end of the chamber, but if she moved too quickly they'd hear the rustle of her gown and catch her anyway. Silently, she took a sliding step sideways. Ten more to go, and they were almost there. She wasn't going to make it.

And suddenly there was a patter of running footsteps, a surprised "Oh!", and Azula's parents halted.

Ty Lee had run right out into the middle of the hall, distracting their attention.

"What is this?" Ozai demanded, but Ursa laid a slender hand on his arm.

"It's just one of Azula's new companions, husband," she said, laughing lightly.

"Ty Lee, daughter of Lord Eizan and Lady Bei Ling," Ty Lee squeaked, bowing so low it she looked like she might bonk her head on the floor. "Apologies—so sorry—I was just—we were playing Hide and Seek, and I got lost…."

She certainly looked lost, with her huge wide eyes and real fear, and not remotely as though she were lying through her teeth. As she was slipping unnoticed behind the pillar, Mai made a mental note that this Ty Lee was not quite as silly and air-headed as she let on.

"This is not a place for playing games," Lord Ozai said harshly.

"No indeed. It's a big place, with many areas that are off-limits. I can understand how you would get lost your first time here," Ursa intervened smoothly, somehow inserting herself between the angry lord and the terrified girl without seeming to actually move. "Why don't I take you back to the courtyard, Ty Lee, and you can continue your game from there."

"Thank you, Lady Ursa…sorry…."

"Well, that was interesting," Azula commented when Mai rejoined her.

"You didn't tell her to do that?" Mai asked, a hint of surprise creeping into her tone against her will. She mentally chalked up 'stupidly brave' under her mental tally of the other girl.

"Of course not. That was a close one, wasn't it?" Azula smirked. "Well, this is more fun than I thought it would be. I suppose we had better go back to the courtyard and collect Ty Lee again."

"Yes, Princess."

"Oh, you may call me Azula. No need to be formal here, we're going to be friends, aren't we?" the princess said as she led the way and Mai followed dutifully after.

"Yes, Azula."

-o-

After an afternoon of tolerating Ty Lee's prancing about and carefully dodging and weaving Azula's pointed barbs and 'tests', Mai's nerves were at their fraying point. She would have to work harder to be less easily affected, Mai thought, because she would be going back every second, third, and fifthday.

"Tell me how it went, dear. Did you get along with the Princess? Do you think you made a good impression?" her mother asked, back in the palanquin headed home.

She thought about Ty Lee's sunny smile, given only after a quick glance to make sure Azula wasn't looking, when Mai quietly murmured her thanks. She thought about the princess, and thought that no one 'got along' with her, they cooperated with her or they didn't. She thought about the feeling of hot gold under her hand and about the revelation that orders could contradict each other, and sometimes all options were breaking one rule or another. Life was suddenly not simple, because even blind obedience was suddenly not so simple.

"Yes, Mother. I think I did."


	2. Sharps

**Sharps.**

"You would do much better in your recitations if you actually tried, Mai," Azula drawled one afternoon. "Even Madame Butter-brain can tell you're not putting in a full effort. You're never that dazy during etiquette or fitness."

"Right," Mai muttered. "Since I'm going to have so much use for remembering epics about the founding of the Fire Nation word-for-word after this year."

"Well, that's true," Azula agreed consideringly. "It's important that the members of the royal family have a good knowledge of Fire Nation history, but I suppose no one will ever expect you to."

By now Mai had learned to let those subtle jabs wash past her. She had been learning a lot as Azula's companion that she had never known as an only child; things like sharing (give it to Azula) and taking turns (Azula goes first). So what if Azula read and memorized faster than she and Ty Lee did, remembered dates and names better than they did. She was also better at calligraphy, politics, and public speaking. In fact, though Ty Lee was much more flexible and nimble than the other two, at just about everything else Azula was recognized as superior.

On top of that, of course, she was a firebender—an _excellent_ firebender.

And she never let anyone forget how easily everything came to her, rubbing it in with sly little barbs and offhanded criticisms packaged as friendly advice.

Not that Mai was complaining or anything. She didn't care about history or calligraphy and certainly not public speaking anyway, insults could be ignored, and there were perks to being the Firelord's granddaughter's companion that outweighed Azula's…well, just Azula and everything that comprised her.

"Well you'll be a great leader then, since you're so smart!" Ty Lee said brightly.

"Yeah," said Mai, because that was what was expected of her.

"Well of course, someone has to be, and it's obviously not Zuzu," Azula said, brushing the flattery aside, "but really Mai, you ought to find something to actually be good at. Other than hating everything."

"Yes, Princess Azula."

"Oh, don't be that way. That wasn't an order, Mai, just a friendly recommendation," she said sugar-sweetly.

Friendly recommendations from Princess Azula were rarely either friendly or mere recommendations.

"I could teach you to walk on your hands," Ty Lee offered later while the princess was off training with her firebending master.

"I think I get along fine with using my feet," Mai said flatly. She'd get dirt and who knew what else all over her hands. Gross.

"What about archery? You have such great aim in netball. I bet you would be really amazing!"

Her eyebrows arched skeptically almost of their own accord. "…Archery?"

"Sure, why not?"

Mai hunched against her tree, feeling unaccountably sullen. For some reason the other girl's bubbliness almost always seemed to make her own mood that much blacker in comparison. What on earth was she so happy about? People were telling Mai to be happy all of the time, but it was hardly a fair command. She could sit and stand and smile and frown when told to, but to command someone to be happy was like saying 'be a firebender' or 'be a son, not a daughter'. "That sounds horribly boring."

Ty Lee dropped into a backbend, cocking her head and regarding her with an upside-down smile. "Well, what do you think would be fun?"

"Nothing," Mai said honestly after a blank moment.

To tell the truth, Mai had never thought about it. She didn't ever get a choice, really, so what was the point? Father and Mother expected her to simply do what she was told. Azula occasionally gave her options, but they weren't really _options_; they would end up doing what the princess wanted no matter what Mai picked. The pretense of allowing a choice was just a test to see what she would say. Mai had found the best chance she had to avoid the consequences of either 'choice' was to be aggressively indifferent regardless of what her preference might have been.

"Well, if you do think of something, I'm sure you'll be great at it. With a good enough teacher I think anyone can learn anything," Ty Lee chirped. "My parents weren't sure about my having a spiritual guide at first, but I'm already learning so much about living in harmony with the universe!"

Yeah, well, Ty Lee's parents were nearly as wacko as she was; according to Mai's parents, they maintained their status because they were obscenely wealthy, not because of how they acted. It was true that Father had never refused her anything she asked for, but Mai had never asked for anything so very out of the ordinary as that hack Ty Lee called a spiritual guide. She couldn't imagine her father allowing something so eccentric, for fear that it might somehow taint their family name.

Well, that was actually an interesting thought.

Mai wondered, suddenly, as she watched Ty Lee handspring across the lawn, what would happen if she did make an effort to tug on the leash a tiny bit.

Perhaps it was Azula's influence, but her attitude toward her parents had been shifting over the last few months. Azula trapped her into doing what she wanted Mai to do, and much as it frustrated her when it was something she really, really didn't want to do, she could respect that ability to control. Mother and Father, she was slowly coming to realize, were soft. They simply asked and expected, but there were no real consequences, not like the ones Azula could inflict. She still followed orders to the letter…if they were explicit orders. And then, though she never disobeyed, she dragged her feet more than ever. Sure, they scolded, but they seemed reluctant to do more than scold. Mai was coming to suspect that they were afraid, to some extent: afraid of Azula, and Mai's friendship with her.

Mai had to do what Father said, but Father had to do what Azula said. It tipped the balance of power in odd ways.

What would they do, Mai wondered, if put in the same position they put her in every day, between the dragon and the inferno, between the princess and their reputation?

If she stated it as the princess's suggestion, just how far could she push her demands?

Of course, now she had to come up with something to demand. Oh joy.

-o-

"Yes, Mai, what is it? You may speak," Lord Heizo said absently, focused on the letter he was writing.

"Father," Mai murmured, eyes on the floor as was respectful, "I would like to learn to fight."

This was not, in itself, a strange sentiment to be heard from an aristocrat's daughter. Mai had proven herself at the Academy to be athletic (though with not as much stamina or motivation as Azula or Ty Lee). Generations ago women were not encouraged to be fighters, but this was a time of war, and had been for a long time. The army was always hungry for warriors to fill its ranks, and both sons and daughters of the noble class were sought out to lead the Fire Nation's armies.

However, those sons and daughters were usually firebenders. Fighting without bending was like running without feet.

"Oh," Lord Heizo said, clearly taken aback. "But, my dear," he went on after a moment, entirely too kindly, "what would you…."

"I want to learn to throw knives," Mai dead-panned.

At the news that his straight-laced, sheltered daughter wanted to try her hand at the preferred weapon of the back-alley street gangs of the Fire Nation capital, Lord Heizo set down his quill and stared.

It was Ty Lee who had given her the idea, unwittingly. Archery was far too typical to get an interesting reaction, but the basic idea was better than any alternatives. Forced to decide, Mai supposed she preferred fitness to any of the other things they did at the Academy. Joining a netball team was out of the question, however. Fighting people sounded far preferable to trying to relate to them. Firebending was obviously not an option, and martial arts were a bit too…touchy for Mai. The idea of grappling with or having to actually hit people with her own hands and feet was just...ew. The positive side of archery was that it was done necessarily from a healthy distance.

As for the knives, well, a straight-laced, sheltered nobleman's daughter probably shouldn't have known as much as Mai did about local street wars, but when one was Azula's companion, one tended to hear secondhand a lot of violence-related news that was probably not entirely appropriate for young ladies' ears.

That was how she reasoned it logically.

Once she had arrived at a conclusion, though, Mai was surprised to realize that the more she thought about it, the more appealing it was.

Throwing knives were inconspicuous. A small blade hidden up a sleeve was infinitely more elegant than a longbow or a sword clattering about on her back or at her belt, and carried with it the element of surprise. Like a firebender, she would be able to take a certain smug comfort in the knowledge that she had her weapons immediately available, invisible to others but tangibly there. Sharp, clean, neat, unnoticeable until needed.

Just like Mai herself.

"I can't have a daughter—_street-fighting_," Father finally managed, appalled.

"I wasn't planning on doing it in the streets," Mai pointed out dryly.

"That's not the point. How would that look? It's not an…" Lord Heizo grimaced delicately. "_appropriate_ pastime for young lady."

"Princess Azula thought it was a good idea."

Which was the truth, though she had said so in a tone not unlike the one she used when Ty Lee talked about auras or started flopping around like a rag doll.

In any case it had the exact effect Mai wanted. Her father's face stiffened strangely, and he offered his next protest almost warily, "…I won't have some street criminal teaching my daughter."

"The army consists of people with a wide variety of skills. I imagine Uncle Zoh could find someone under his command who knows knife-throwing," Mai countered smoothly.

At the mention of his brother Zoh Cheng, Lord Heizo frowned despite himself. Mai wondered if he was jealous of his brother's firebending abilities. Now that her mind was on it, she fancied he probably was. It was an easy path to power, after all, and Uncle Zoh certainly had clout.

And there was no question that Captain Zoh Cheng would be willing and able to hunt down a skilled teacher for her; being unmarried and childless himself, he spoiled Mai rotten, sending her back all kinds of exotic gifts and trinkets from the villages and towns of the Earth Kingdom as the war front crawled onward and outward. He'd probably be thrilled to hear that his favorite niece wanted to be able to gut any impertinent boy who looked crosswise at her.

"Well…I suppose…if my brother finds a suitable teacher…." Father said reluctantly, and that settled two things:

Mai was going to learn to fight, firebender or not;

And the chain of authority had been altered. Mai's fate and decisions were no longer in solely the hands of her parents, but also in those of Princess Azula. Whether or not that was a good or a bad thing, she wasn't sure.

-o-

Knife-throwing was…interesting.

It came as something of a surprise to Mai, who found very few things in life to be so. An even more pleasant surprise was how very, very naturally it came to her.

"Throwing a long leaf-blade knife is different than throwing stiletto darts or small knives," Lieutenant Cheong droned in her oddly low, gravelly voice. "Instead of pinching by the tip, you hold it here on the blade, at the center of gravity."

True to Mai's expectations, Uncle Zoh had been delighted at the idea of his precious little flower throwing sharp objects around at potentially deadly velocities. In addition to the usual heaps of Earth Kingdom jewelry and scarves and toys, his monthly package of presents contained a set of matching wood-handled knives in three types with fitted leather arm sheathes, and was accompanied by one of his scouting officers.

Lieutenant Cheong was a robust, meat-fisted woman with graying hair and a no-nonsense attitude, who looked at first glance far too large and bulky to be sneaking around on scouting missions or throwing tiny little darts. The knife was barely visible, glinting between her thick fingers. But when she threw it, the blade dug deep into the target, burying itself almost to the hilt.

(Mother was not remotely pleased with the large, unfinished log hunks that now cluttered her pretty little courtyard garden, but her weak protests stopped after Lieutenant Cheong politely suggested they use the flowering maples as targets instead.)

"Yes. Like that," Cheong said, examining her stance critically. "Now the same with the step, and the follow-through."

With a soft _flit_, Mai's knife zipped through the air, sticking briefly a finger-width from her teacher's blade before dropping to the ground.

"Very good, the aim is very good," her teacher said, nodding, as Mai let the next knife drop down from its sheath and into her hand. She still had to shake her arm a little to get them to come free when she wanted them, but it was getting easier. "The power and thrust are not there yet, but that will come as you get older and stronger."

_Flit._

"Good!" This one stuck right where her last knife had hit.

Mai actually smiled a little.

-o-

"See?" said Azula when Mai finally gave her and Ty Lee a demonstration of her new-found skill, studding one of the trees in the Palace garden with a neat row of stilettos. "You're not nearly so dull now that you have a deadly secret hidden up your sleeves."

-o-

Mai knew something wretched was afoot the moment she entered Mother's sunroom. The last time she had seen that disgusting glow of suppressed ecstasy in her either of her parents' faces, they had shipped her off to be Azula's 'friend'/toy/victim. Sighing a little, she sat down on a cushion, hung an appropriate expression of neutrality on her face, and braced herself to hear what the latest grand effort in Lord Heizo's climb up the political food chain was to be.

To her surprise, Lady Jien got up from her chair and joined her daughter on the floor cushions, reaching out and clasping Mai's small (and now slightly calloused) hands in her long, smooth ones.

"Mai," Mother said gently, "I have some very exciting news. Now, it might seem a little scary at first, and that's natural."

That effectively tied Mai's stomach in knots. Her mother's idea of what was scary was everything from bugs to storms to Princess Azula—well, Mai conceded, Azula _was_ scary, but the fact stood that Lady Jien was not the bravest or strongest of women, and what she considered scary was usually pretty dull. Her idea of what was exciting, however, had proven itself quite alarming recently. Mai wasn't quite sure she wanted to hear what was both scary _and_ exciting.

"You remember the conversations we've had about mothers and fathers, right?"

Yes, definitely alarming. The conversation plunged steadily downhill from there.

Arranged marriage was fact of life in the aristocracy, and one which Mai had up to this point had little occasion to think about. She'd known this day would come, but between Azula and knives and determined indifference, she had…not forgotten, exactly, but it wasn't…she hadn't thought it would come so soon. Boys were pretty disgusting anyway, but given her father's determination to claw his way to power, Mai had a sickly-sinking dread that it might not be one of the stupid, spotty sons of one of the generals or nobles Lord Heizo wanted to curry favor with that she would be joined to. That fat old Admiral Izato had been coming to dinner an awful lot lately, and Mai had overheard here and there that Father was attempting to get into the good graces of Lord Kai Toh, whose middle-aged son was still unmarried, and for good reason….

As Lady Jien kept blathering about how courtship wasn't so bad and just look how happy she and Father were, Mai pulled her hands away and tucked them up her sleeves to run her fingers along the cool wooden shafts of the darts strapped to her forearms.

Fat lot of good cold steel would do her if duty and obligation wouldn't allow her to use it when she actually did need its protection! Even Azula wouldn't be able to get her out of this one. Someday, eventually, the princess would find herself in the same boat.

"Are you alright, dear?" Lady Jien asked worriedly, reaching out to touch Mai's arm. "Please don't be—oh!" Startled, her mother pulled back her sleeve, exposing the rows of winking darts. "Good heavens, Mai—do you—do you _always_ wear these?"

"No," Mai muttered, tugging her sleeve back down. Sure, she wore them all day, and when she slept, but she did take them off to bathe. She didn't feel quite so cold all the time with the extra layer of leather on, and there was something very comforting about having a lot of sharp weapons on hand all the time, even if she couldn't realistically use them on the people most likely to give her grief.

"Um," said Jien, thrown off track. "Well. As I was saying, I'm sure you will enjoy yourself once you get used to the idea. But aren't you at least interested to hear who your father and I have found for you?"

Clearly she was supposed to be curious, at minimum. Lady Jien asked it with the air of being thrilled to have something of irresistible appeal to dangle in front of her difficult-to-impress daughter. However, the mental image of Admiral Izato's slimy, wrinkled face was making Mai more nauseous than anything else.

"You already know him, dear," Mother said, obviously enjoying this long, drawn-out reveal. Mai was torn between wanting to tell her to just spit it out and to run away, her fears solidified. It probably was Izato—oh Agni. She thought she might actually be sick.

When Mai showed no signs of guessing, Lady Jien finally couldn't hold in her surprise any longer. "It's Prince Zuko, dear, isn't that wonderful? If all goes well, perhaps you will live in the Palace someday! It is truly a great honor that Lord Ozai and Lady Ursa have given us. Didn't we tell you being friends with the princess would be an amazing opportunity?"

"…What? Azula's brother?" Mai blurted, forgetting herself in her alarm.

Yes, she knew all about Prince Zuko. There had only been two or three occasions that she'd seen him up close, and they'd never exchanged words—but Mai heard _about_ him constantly. The level of disdain Azula held for her brother blazed through like the flame in a lantern whenever the princess mentioned 'Zuzu' (which was often). In Azula's words, Zuko was a sissy who clung to his mother's side, a lousy firebender, and an idiot.

Mai had her own theories, though she never voiced them. Except maybe for the Firelord, everyone in the Fire Nation was probably less aggressive, a worse firebender, and stupider than Azula, so none of those epithets really meant much whether they were true or not. The source of her dislike for her brother, Mai suspected, was that if something did ever happen to Crown Prince Iroh _and_ Prince Lu Ten, even on that slim chance Azula would be unlikely to ever inherit the throne. Given how much she liked bossing Mai and Ty Lee around, Mai figured Azula would love nothing more than to have a whole Nation to be in charge of.

But she wouldn't, because Zuko was the oldest, regardless of what his other qualifications might or might not be.

With Azula's claims dismissed and nothing else to go by, Mai had unconsciously painted a mental picture of Zuko as an older and dumber male version of the princess: proud, ambitious, mean, and prone to playing nasty games with people. As if one scary royal wasn't enough, she'd now have to bow to the whims of two.

Not to mention that Azula _despised_ her brother. Mai had a feeling there would be a lot of teasing and mockery headed her way the instant the princess caught wind that their parents were trying to match her with Zuko. She thought she'd been caught between the dragon and the inferno up til _now_—

"Mai, you needn't look so dreary," her mother said a little plaintively, disappointed that even an 'honor' of this magnitude didn't bring a smile to her daughter's face. "You will have plenty of time to become acclimated to the idea. You're both still very young—"

_No, you think?_ Mai thought bitterly.

"—and nothing is written in stone yet. Announcing a betrothal is still several years off. I was just as reluctant when I was your age, but…. This is just an overture, dear. For you two to…get to know each other. It's only once a week and Lady Ursa and I will both be there, so there's no need to feel nervous."

_Right…because having you and Azula's mother there watching will make it _less _uncomfortable._

"If you _really_ don't like each other," Lady Jien seemed to have great difficulty saying this, "then—then we're not going to _force _either of you. Just…." Giving up trying to clasp Mai's hands (which were thrust up her sleeves and tucked tightly in the crooks of her elbows) as a lost cause, she patted her shoulder. "Please, dear, try to remember what this kind of connection could mean for your father, and for your future?"

As though there was anything else she was allowed to take into account. It wasn't fair. Azula and Ty Lee weren't being pushed at boys yet, why did she have to be first? And while Zuko was at least not a disgusting old man like Admiral Izato, Mai was positive his sister would more than make up for that slight mark in his favor.

"…Yes, Mother."


	3. Match

**Match.**

Mai was sulking.

Sulking was not an unusual thing for her to be doing—in fact, it seemed to be something she spent more and more time at lately—but she was sulking more sullenly than usual, which was making her mother irritable, which only made Mai sulkier.

"Do at least _pretend_ to be cheerful, Mai," Lady Jien muttered right before they stepped out of the palanquin together, terminating a one-sided argument that had been going on since breakfast.

Mai _wasn't_ cheerful, or anything approaching it. Even with all the elaborately embroidered layers of her new outfit, she felt cold and naked without the warm clasp of her leather knife sheathes, which her father had downright commanded that she leave at home for this occasion, and which her mother had checked for to make absolutely certain she had complied. Then, for the first time in her short life she was wearing makeup. Mother said it wasn't much, but the little touch of kohl around her eyes and the dab of fire-flower jelly on her lips to make them redder made her feel sticky and blinky and stupid. They had put up her hair differently, too, with lots of fancy loops and floops and pins that were sticking her in the scalp. She was dreading having to sit and talk to Prince Zuko and she was dreading the strong probability of running into Azula somewhere along the way, and she wanted nothing more than to turn around, run straight back to their mansion, wash her face, put on her sheathes, and throw knives at everything in sight.

All the same, Mai folded her hands neatly into her sleeves and followed Mother with her over-styled head demurely bent so that no one could see that she was scowling at the floor.

Lady Ursa's sunroom was much bigger than Mother's, bright with lots of bookshelves in addition to the more typical arrangements of flowers and seats. Mai stood behind and to the left of her mother to greet the Firelord's daughter-in-law and grandson, as Mother had told her was traditional and proper, bowing low to pay her respects to Lady Ursa.

_That_ was fine. Azula's mother was pretty and pleasant and nice, and Mai actually sort of liked her.

But then both ladies drew their children forward to be formally introduced, and _that_ Mai wasn't so thrilled about. They bowed and recited the traditional things they'd had to memorize for this and stood straight again, and were shuffled over to the little tea table set aside for the potential couple. Mother and Lady Ursa retired to the other side of the room to talk about boring stuff, and Mai was left with Prince Zuko.

For a moment they just sized each other up. Zuko, Mai thought, looked a lot like Azula, except obviously more boyish; his eyes, though, she noticed for the first time, were lighter and brighter and more open. If the princess's eyes were burnt amber, her brother's were warm honey, and lacked the chill of calculation that frosted Azula's gaze. They were more along the lines of what Mai had expected a firebender's eyes would look like, somehow. His posture was straight, his expression slightly wary, and his clothes as stupidly over-elaborate as Mai's.

Mai waited, expecting Zuko would spring some question to put her on her toes like Azula would in such a situation to test her out, but it didn't come. He just sat and looked increasingly self-conscious under her silent gaze, tapping at his teacup with his fingertips. Her hands were cold, so she wrapped her own fingers around her teacup. Judging by the smell and the deep reddish color it was cranberry-mint tea. Mai hated cranberry-mint tea, and a particularly sharp pin was digging into her head just behind her right ear. She was starting to wish Zuko would say almost anything, even if it did make her uncomfortable. If they had been alone she wouldn't care as much about sitting here in stubborn silence, but with Mother and Lady Ursa over there expecting them to 'get to know each other', it was quickly becoming awkward.

"…You look…nice," he finally said, managing to sound as though he'd had a great deal of difficulty thinking it up.

"…Thanks," said Mai. As far as conversation starters went, that didn't leave her with much. What on earth more could he expect her to say to that? But she had to talk to him. "I guess I'm more dressed up than usual."

"Yeah, I've seen you when you've come to play with Azula…." He trailed off uneasily, seeming to regret bringing up his sister. It was, Mai agreed, a regrettable subject to bring up.

Silence crept back over them. Mai's eyes slid over to toss a dirty sidelong glance at Lady Jien, and realized in mortification that both of their mothers were looking back at them, making encouraging gestures to their respective children. Cheeks flaming, both she and Zuko hurriedly turned back to the tea table.

"So…uh…." Zuko picked up his teacup as though to take a sip, then seemed to think better of it, setting it back down and turning it in his hands. "So…you go to the Girls' Academy."

Mai had to bite back several sarcastic comments, reminding herself that this was the Firelord's grandson, after all, and Father and Mother would probably lock her in her room forever if she mocked him and angered Lady Ursa. "Yes."

"Um…and…do you like it? There?" he went on doggedly.

"It's…ok."

Mai was finding herself having to completely scrap and rewrite her opinion of the prince: he was absolutely nothing like Princess Azula. She was starting to wonder how they could be related. Azula was always in control, perfectly confident in her ability to drive the game, or the conversation, or whatever she happened to be involved in at any given moment. Briefly Mai wondered if Azula was right about her brother after all and he was a bit of a cinderbrain; he certainly was making a hash of conversation right now. On the other hand, it wasn't like Mai was doing any better, so it wasn't really fair of her to judge him harshly for being awkward. If nothing else, at least he was trying, and seemed to be getting frustrated by her unhelpful replies.

"Athletics is ok," she offered dutifully.

"Oh," he said, seizing on it. "What sorts of stuff do you do in athletics there?"

Mai shrugged. It wasn't _that_ great, just better than anything else. "Uh...calisthenics…gymnastics…netball…."

"We have to play netball at the Boys' Academy too," Zuko said when she trailed off.

"Do you like netball?" Mai asked mechanically, not really caring and feeling rather stupid. This whole thing was quickly shifting from uncomfortable to just plain boring. They had to do this _every week_?

"Well…not really," he admitted.

"Huh," she said. Zuko seemed fairly athletic, why wouldn't he like the most popular sport in the Fire Nation? Azula and Ty Lee loved it, and generally roped her unwillingly into their games to fill out the team during break. "I don't like it either."

"Really? Most people love it."

"Well, I don't."

"I guess you don't like cranberry-mint tea either," said Zuko, pointing at her still untouched cup.

"No. It's awful," said Mai. She noticed he hadn't drunk any of his either.

"Tell me about it. It's Mom's favorite."

"My parents like oolong," Mai said dully, and they both shuddered a little.

"Ugh. Sorry."

It turned out that they hated a lot of things in common, including giving recitations, the Ember Island Players, sungi horn music, puns, and most kinds of tea. They were in the middle of bemoaning the Academy curriculum of epic poetry when their mothers drifted back over, smiling.

"So…I guess I'll see you next week, then," Zuko said, abruptly awkward again while their mothers pretended to be engrossed in saying goodbye to each other.

"Yeah. I guess so." At her mother's expectant glance, Mai pressed her knuckles to the opposite palm and bowed slightly. "Until then, Prince Zuko."

"You don't have to call me 'Prince'," Zuko said, hurrying to return the bow. "I mean—if you don't want—I mean, just Zuko is fine. To call me by. Um…yeah."

When Azula said it, it was a prettily worded command. When Zuko said it—well, it certainly wasn't a _pretty_ anything. He just meant it, plain and simple.

How…different.

-o-

"Sooo," said Azula first thing the next morning when she got a chance to corner Mai before classes, in a very familiar tone colored by a very familiar smirk.

_So what?_ Mai imagined herself snapping back. Why bother dragging it out? All three of them knew exactly what 'so' Azula was referring to, so why make a stupid game of it?

She knew, though, why Azula liked to do things this way, having had plenty of opportunity to observe the princess at play. Like Mai and her throwing knives or a cat who found an injured mouse, the princess had a new toy to play with, and she was going to enjoy it to the fullest.

"How was your little date with Zuzu?" she drawled, when Mai refused to take the bait.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Azula's brows arched. "You were there, weren't you?"

Mai shrugged moodily. What was she supposed to say? Anything positive would make Azula angry, anything negative would make its way back to Zuko and Ursa and her parents and make _them_ angry, and anything obviously neutral would satisfy neither. "It wasn't very long. I didn't take notes."

"I think you two would be adorable together!" Ty Lee said happily, clasping her hands together. "My spiritual advisor says love makes our auras glow. You must be so excited!"

"I don't _love_ him," Mai retorted, alarmed. "I barely _know_ him."

"What did you think of Dumdum? First impressions?" the princess asked, eyes glittering sardonically.

"…I don't know," she muttered, folding her arms tighter up her sleeves and running her finger over the cool, blunted blade of one of her long knives.

"Do you think he's attractive?" Azula pressed.

"I didn't think about it," Mai lied.

"Well, everyone says Zuko and I look a lot alike," she pointed out slyly. "Are you saying _I'm_ not pretty enough to notice?"

"Of course you are! You're the prettiest girl in the world!" Ty Lee assured her, not noticing Mai's sharp glare.

"Yes, you're pretty," Mai said, concentrating on not gritting her teeth as she said it.

"Well, if you think I'm pretty, and Zuko and I look a lot alike, then you must think he's handsome, right?"

Glaring at the Firelord's granddaughter probably fell under the heading of 'disrespectful misbehavior', so Mai stared fixedly at the ground instead. "If you say so, Princess."

"I think you have a crush on Zuzu," Azula declared.

"I don't—I barely know him," Mai said crossly. "I don't _have_ an opinion."

"Oh, I think you do," the princess said, eyes narrowing. "I think you must have a lot of opinions, Mai, because I can't imagine anyone is _that_ dull."

Fine, so maybe she did have opinions, Mai thought angrily. No one had ever asked for them in the past, why should anyone start now? As if it made a difference what she thought about anything. Whether she thought Azula was the best thing since the sun like Ty Lee did or whether she thought she was just plain rotten, what would be the point of saying or acting like it? She'd still have to go to Academy with her and play with her three days a week the same either way. Same thing with Zuko: like him, hate him, Mother would doll her up in kohl and gold thread and drag her here despite anything her daughter might say. Do this, do that, and now be happy about it and tell us what you think of it.

Why couldn't everyone just _back off_ for once?

Ty Lee finally seemed to be picking up on the tension, looking back and forth between them as Mai's pout tightened and Azula crossed her arms. Then Mai made the mistake of looking up. Cold burnt-amber eyes scraped over flat grey ones like blades, and there was no contest, not really.

"He's just sort of quiet. That's all," Mai muttered, looking away.

"Was he? Did you talk? What did you talk about?"

"Nothing, just…stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Like…netball and stuff," Mai said, feeling stupid. "Nothing interesting."

"You hate netball," Azula said skeptically. "So does Dumdum, for that matter."

"You do?" Ty Lee said, surprised, as Mai shrugged, scowling a little. "I told you we didn't talk about anything interesting."

"Well, I suppose you'll have plenty of time to form an opinion and talk about something more interesting, and I'm sure we'll be interested to hear all about it," smirked Azula.

Mai didn't doubt it.

-o-

The second week, it was dragonflower tea, one of the varieties that Mai and Zuko had agreed were probably the most vile. Upon catching a whiff, she exchanged a baleful look with the prince.

"Tell me about it," he said, before she even said anything. "Think our moms will notice if we pour it into a potted plant?"

"Probably," she said, but she couldn't help but smile a little at the idea, and that tiny smirk made Zuko brighten visibly. They whiled away the hour quietly inventing hypothetical ways that one might get rid of a cup of tea inconspicuously, occasionally darting nervous glances at their mothers to be sure their plots were not being overheard.

The third week, Zuko must have finally said something to Lady Ursa, because there was jasmine tea, which they had agreed was less unbearable than most teas. It was also the week that Mai learned the one thing the young prince was most passionate about:

His country.

"Someday the whole world will be Fire Nation," Zuko said with certainty.

"The war is going well. That does seem likely," agreed Mai warily.

Without any foul-tasting tea to criticize she had automatically fallen back on bringing up the subject her parents had been discussing over breakfast, which today had been the war. The war was a distant thing in Mai's mind, something that had been going on for as long as she could remember, somewhere far away in places she had seen drawn on maps. It didn't amount to much more than fodder for polite, boring conversation and boxes of Earth Kingdom trinkets from Uncle Zoh. Azula talked about it sometimes, her dark eyes glinting with cruel fascination as she described in detail that made Ty Lee look nauseous the battles and casualties and fallen villages of the front; Mai usually tuned her out and nodded.

The prince's golden eyes lit up like festival lanterns when she brought up the war, and for an uncomfortable moment Mai had thought she had finally hit upon the Azula she had originally expected to see in Zuko.

But he said, "Yes—but when Ba Sing Se falls, I don't think it will be long before the other Earth Kingdom cities join us willingly. Don't you think?"

Mai had never thought about it, and didn't particularly care. "I guess so."

"They'll see how much better off things are in Ba Sing Se under Fire Nation rule, and how much happier everyone is, and they'll want to be part of it too," Zuko went on. The look on his face was much more interesting than what he was saying. He seemed to glow from within as he spoke, coming alive with the excitement of his thoughts, and his eyes were unfixed as though he could see the world remade even as he described it. "And then there will be peace."

"…Hm," Mai responded, because in the pause that followed she felt as though she ought to give some response, though she wasn't sure what. Seeing him caught up in his idealistic vision like this, it was suddenly easy to see why Azula thought Zuko was dozy. The war over? Unified nations? Who cared? But at her lackluster reaction, his face fell a little, the glow abruptly stifled as he became aware of himself again. Immediately Mai wished she had thought of something else to say—even something as simple as 'yes, of course', or 'you're probably right', and something strange occurred to her.

Zuko actually cared what she thought. Not just to get a rise out of her, but because for whatever reason, the prince (of all people!) thought her opinion mattered. And Mai didn't want him to think she was thinking something bad about him.

"That sounds nice," she said belatedly. The glow didn't come back, to her disappointment, but he proffered a small, lopsided smile.


	4. Divided

**Yikes, it's been ages since I worked on this. Re-watched the series recently and felt re-inspired. I guess we'll see if I power through and finish it this time around.**

* * *

**Divided.**

Life was becoming a stroll on a tightrope.

At least things weren't so boring all the time anymore. In a twisted sort of way Mai was beginning to enjoy coming to the Palace. She looked forward to the surge of adrenaline inevitably brought on whenever Azula's games threw the three of them into the path of potential trouble. Azula herself was cruel, but she was also cruelly funny at times, and her sly sense of humor was growing on Mai. Even Ty Lee was occasionally interesting in her unpredictability, despite her annoying optimism and complete disregard for personal space. At the Palace, she was poised to hear all the latest gossip, and the three of them were spoiled senseless. Her parents were so pleased with how things were going (and with Father's recent appointment to the Ministry of the Interior by Firelord Azulon) that they even got her a new set of throwing darts for her nameday.

All of this was well and good. What complicated things was Zuko. Because as much as Mai protested her indifference to Azula and Ty Lee, she was slowly but certainly developing a crush.

Zuko was—well, it was hard to explain. He was self-conscious in a way that Mai found difficult to understand. He was royalty, after all. He was easily irritated and arrogant, which Mai approved of. Again, he was royalty, and royalty ought to have a certain sense of pride and power. He was almost melodramatic at times, and any time he got on the subject of the greatness of the Fire Nation, he was like a boy on fire himself, his gold eyes glowing like hot embers.

Mai liked him best when he was cranky, when his dark mood matched her own and the way his forehead crinkled when he scowled; and when he was excited, though she was generally more interested in watching the way his eyes lit up than actually listening to his animated rambling about the war and the bright future victory would bring and blah blah blah.

Of course her mother would have been delighted had Mai given a hint of it to her. And any wise person would point out that if a girl in a noble family was going to get a crush on anyone, the ideal person would be the noble son whom the parents of both were trying to push her toward betrothal.

That wise person, however, was obviously not taking sibling rivalry into account.

Mai's friend had always made offhanded snide remarks about her brother, but now she went out of her way to insult Zuko whenever she got the chance. He was stupid. He was clumsy. On and on and on. When Mai failed to react, Azula just got slier. Not a day went by that she wasn't making exaggerated parodies of Zuko's latest stumble in training, or some uninformed thing he had said. Ty Lee would giggle, and Mai would smirk just enough to get Azula off her back.

Unsatisfied, the princess searched constantly for ways to push harder.

"Just try it, Mai, it's really easy," Ty Lee coaxed, bending over into a backflip, then shifting easily into a handstand. "I can teach you. It'll be fun."

"I don't want to cartwheel," Mai muttered, hunching against her favorite tree.

"Mai hates things that are fun," Azula drawled, crossing her arms and cocking a brow. "Never mind her, show me how to do it."

"Ok!"

Mai scowled, hunching down further. She didn't hate fun. She just didn't think _this_ was fun. Antagonizing the servants earlier by continually changing their minds about what they wanted for lunch: fun. Practicing her knife-throwing: fun. Frolicking around like squirrelmunks and getting mud on her hands? Not fun. She'd rather go pick on the servants some more. Sullenly, she tuned the other girls out and picked at her (mud-free) nails. Mother put colored enamel on hers sometimes, and so did some of the older girls at the Academy. Mai was starting to get used to wearing makeup—she liked the way the kohl accentuated her pale eyes, though she still didn't care much for lip-jelly. She'd asked her mother if she could enamel her nails too but she'd said to wait until she was older.

The sound of footsteps pulled her out of her thoughts. Bored half to death, Mai looked up to see Zuko himself walking through the ambulatory with Lady Ursa. Her chest fluttered warmly with sudden nerves. The prince wasn't looking back, though. Because of Azula, or had he not noticed Mai at all? Either way, seeing him brought that glow back. Half hoping he'd stop or look over and half petrified that he would, Mai turned away quickly so he wouldn't catch her staring.

Of course, nothing ever slipped by Azula.

"What's she doing?" Mai hissed as Ty Lee came to stand by her, and the princess went running over to her mother and brother.

"Getting Prince Zuko to come play with us," Ty Lee said brightly, and with a not-very-subtle sly grin. "Won't that be fun?"

"Ugh…."

Great. More 'fun'. Mai sighed as Azula came skipping back with an irate-looking Zuko in tow.

"Come on, Mai, we're going to play a game," she ordered. "Stop sulking and come stand over here. And stand very still."

Trying hard not to glance in Zuko's direction, Mai obeyed. She wasn't sure what Azula was planning, but didn't think she much liked the way it was going so far.

"Here's the way it goes," said Azula, pulling an apple down from Mai's sulking tree. There was a glint in the Azula's burnt-amber eyes that made a little chill tickle Mai's spine as the princess approached and placed it on top of her head. Mai scowled. "Now what you do is try to knock the apple off the other person's head. Like this."

A cold terror as sharp as frostbite paralyzed Mai as it broke on her that her friend was actually going to _firebend right at her_ and she had just an instant to realize how much she really, truly resented benders and squeeze her eyes shut before the fire was rushing overhead in a crackling blaze_._

She had seen firebending before. There were always performers and demonstrations of military maneuvers at parades and festivals. A couple times, she had watched from a safe distance while Uncle Zoh practiced his training. Azula played with fire sometimes, calling little flickering tongues to her fingertips to show off and scare the other two girls, and once, she and Ty Lee had watched from the sidelines while the princess was training in earnest. It had been impressive and intimidating all at once, but nothing like this.

Still not quite unfrozen, Mai got a second shock as Zuko gasped and ran at her. The weight of the apple was still on her head, on fire, and then suddenly they were both tumbling into the fountain.

Mai got over the immediate fright of having fireballs thrown at her pretty quickly in the horrifying embarrassment of this new situation—soaked to the skin with her crush on top of her, his cheeks burning, while her friends laughed at them.

"Aw, they're so cute together," Ty Lee cooed as they quickly detangled themselves. Zuko didn't offer to help her up, which was rude, but for once rude was just fine with Mai. The sooner he left, the better—this was mortifying. She didn't want him seeing her like this, and she didn't want Azula picking on them. This wasn't fair. Why had Mother forced her into this whole thing in the first place? Why did Zuko have to be so funny and attractive but not be able to stand up to his little sister? And why did Azula have to be such a brat sometimes?

"You two are such—ugh!" Mai snapped as she got to her feet, dripping, and the prince stomped off, steaming slightly. She couldn't finish that sentence—she didn't dare insult the princess. Especially since it could mean not only getting in trouble with Mother and Father, but quite literally getting burned. And anyway, she was so pissed off Mai doubted she'd be able to articulate her anger even if she were allowed to. With Zuko gone her head was a little clearer, and she could go back to being mad that Azula had used her as firebending target practice. Azula was good, but what if she had missed? Mai could have been killed! And for what, a few minutes of humiliation? Not only that, but now her robes and hair were soaked, along with all her knife sheathes, and the leather would take _forever _to dry out and she'd have to dry the metal tips of her darts soon or they'd all rust—and now talking to Prince Zuko tomorrow would be all awkward and uncomfortable again, and he probably thought she was in on it or something—and, oh spirits, she had actually _touched him_. Her cheeks reddened again. Oh dear….

"Don't be such a baby, Mai, it was just a joke," Azula drawled, rolling her eyes. "Get a sense of humor."

Mai gritted her teeth. Climbing out of the fountain, she stripped the knife sheathes off her arms and tossed them down on the grass to dry, then tucked her hands tightly into the crooks of her elbows, shivering. It had been a little cool in the courtyard anyway, but drenched and without her leathers it was freezing.

"You really do look cute together," Ty Lee said, as though she thought saying so would mollify the obviously irritated girl.

"Anyway, if your parents make you marry Dumb-Dumb you should probably get used to that—he's such a klutz," Azula smirked.

"What on earth happened here?" said Lady Ursa, stepping gracefully into the courtyard. "Mai, you're soaked too. What's going on, Azula?"

"It was an accident, Mother," the princess said, her eyes going wide and voice sweetening anxiously. "Zuko tripped and knocked her into the fountain."

"Hmmm," said Ursa, eyeing her daughter dubiously. "Well, we had better get you into some dry clothes, Mai. Azula, we have a letter from your Uncle Iroh, why don't you head inside."

Still fuming silently, Mai bowed as briefly as was polite to Azula and Lady Ursa and followed the house servant to get changed.

-o-

"I'm sorry about knocking you over," was the first thing Zuko said as soon as they were out of earshot of their mothers, staring straight ahead with bright red cheeks.

"Let's just forget about it," Mai muttered. The apology was polite or whatever but honestly, she preferred to pretend the incident had never happened.

Lady Ursa had decided it was a beautiful day out and the four of them should all take a walk in one of the larger gardens. Mai found the riotous oranges and yellows of the fire lilies obnoxious and didn't really see what the big deal was about a bit of sun and breeze, but she didn't really care that much if they stayed inside either. At least they didn't have to drink tea.

Today she'd finally gotten away with wearing her sheathes, though. Tucking her hands into her sleeves, just feeling the leather and polished wood darts under her hands put Mai at ease. Even the embarrassment of yesterday didn't seem like that big of a deal anymore.

"Azu—someone told me you like knives," Zuko said, glad to change the subject. "Look what Uncle Iroh sent me from Ba Sing Se!"

He held it out for her to take. It was a one-sided blade with a black and gold handle in the form of the Earth Kingdom insignia, and there was writing on the blade: _Never give up without a fight. _It was heavier in her hand than a throwing knife, and the edge much sharper than any of her practice darts. A real weapon. The tingle of adrenaline at the thought of a real battle and the warmth of the handle from Zuko's hand made her chest flutter.

"It's beautiful," she said honestly, tracing the gold insignia with one finger.

"My swords trainer is teaching me how to use it," Zuko said happily.

Mai looked at him in surprise. "You're learning sword fighting?"

"Dual swords," he said. "It's like a scimitar, but in two pieces. Lu Ten started to teach me before he left for the front, but now I have a trainer. They use dual swords in Earth Kingdom. Maybe next Uncle Iroh will send me my own sword!" His eyes brightened at the thought.

That did sound awfully neat, but something wasn't clicking here. "But why are you learning to fight with a weapon? You can firebend. You don't need swords," Mai said, her voice dropping into a mutter.

"It can't hurt to have a backup," Zuko said, flushing a little and looking straight ahead again. "A warrior shouldn't depend on just one thing."

"I guess," said Mai. She was sort of impressed, and that was saying something. Though she couldn't help but wonder now how much of what Azula said about Zuko being a terrible firebender might be true—why would any firebender feel like he needed a backup? She was willing to bet Azula would never waste her time with the sort of weapons non-benders had to depend on.

"Besides," Zuko went on, "I like swordfighting."

That, Mai could relate to. Reluctantly handing back the beautiful Earth Kingdom blade, she reached up her sleeve and unsheathed one of her own favorite knives to show him.

"It's so light," Zuko marveled, weighing the slender blade in his hand. "For throwing, right? Do you always carry these?"

"Usually," Mai said, then whispered, "but don't tell Mother."

They exchanged a conspiratorial look, and Zuko laughed. "You're really cool, Mai," he said, returning the throwing knife. "We should train together sometime!"

That warm fluttering glow came back brighter than ever, but Mai glanced back at Ladies Ursa and Jien walking on the other side of the garden, keeping half an eye on their children. "I doubt our parents would think that was appropriate," she pointed out.

"Oh, right," Zuko said, pinking slightly. "Well, maybe later. In a few years it won't matter, and we can spar all we want."

Mai's cheeks burned as though they might catch fire and she wasn't sure whether to be flattered, offended, or just wish that the ground would swallow her up. _In a few years it wouldn't matter, _as in, _if we're married we won't need a chaperone_. It took a moment for what he'd said to catch up in Zuko's mind, apparently, because a half second later, his own face heated scarlet.

"I mean—not that—um—" he started, flustered.

"Tell me more about the dual swords," Mai said, adding the moment to list of things to not really think about. Nothing could possibly be awkward or boring about discussing weaponry. But as they talked about drop-points and weight balance, Mai couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside, even managing to forget about how much Zuko and Azula hated each other.

_He likes me too!_

-o-

"He plays with that stupid knife all the time," Azula said, rolling her eyes and kicking at the base of the fountain. "He's not even good at it."

"It must be special to him, since your uncle sent it," Ty Lee speculated. She was walking on her hands, again. _Couldn't she ever just sit or stand like a normal person?_ Mai wondered idly, digging at a crack in the tiles around the fountain with one of her knives. Spirits, she was so bored. She wished Azula would get over it and finish venting so they could go do something fun. And also so that she wouldn't have to listen to her complain about Zuko. But mostly because it was boring.

"_Fire Prince_ Iroh," the princess sneered. "That fat old kook. Do you know what he sent me? A stupid _doll_."

"A pretty one?" Ty Lee asked brightly. "That's so nice!"

"It wasn't pretty, it was dumb and unfair," Azula retorted. "Even if Zuko's a boy and I'm a girl, I'm still a much better fighter than he is. Uncle should have sent _me _something better than a childish toy. And it's a stupid, ugly knife anyway, I don't see why Zuko thinks it's so great."

Blah, blah, blah. Sighing, Mai continued prying at a small chip of tile wedged in the crack.

"I'm sorry, am I insulting your boyfriend, Mai?" snapped the princess.

"He's not my boyfriend," Mai said automatically, only half listening. She finally got the tile chip unstuck. Goodie, what an accomplishment.

"Might as well be. I know you have a crush on him," Azula said, and Ty Lee giggled. "And I can't imagine why. He's stupid and awkward and can't do anything right, and he knows it. I think the only reason he plays with knives is because he can't firebend properly."

Right, because the only reason anyone would want to fight with a blade was because they couldn't firebend. Mai scowled, fist clenching around her own. "You're just jealous of Zuko because you wish your uncle had sent you a knife too," she muttered, and Ty Lee gasped.

"Me? Jealous of _Zuzu_? How _dare_ you?" Azula flared, her voice going shrill. "How dare you take his side against me? You were _my_ friend first, you should side with _me_!"

Mai flinched, horrified at herself. She knew better than to speak her mind—would Azula get so mad that she'd firebend at her again? "I'm not siding against you, Princess Azula. You're my friend," she said (thankfully, sounding much calmer than she felt). "If you want a knife, take one of mine." Hoping her hand wasn't shaking, she proffered the blade she had been digging with.

Azula took it and she quickly thrust her empty hand back into her sleeve, glancing up for a second through her fringe. Ty Lee looked as though she wanted to step in, but wasn't sure how. The princess was weighing the knife in her hand, looking down at Mai thoughtfully.

"You're still mad about the other day, aren't you," Azula said, gears clearly turning in her burnt amber eyes. "Are you really still going to be a baby about that? I told you we were just teasing."

For a long moment she struggled over whether or not it was worth telling the truth, and came to the conclusion that Azula would keep nagging her about it anyway. "You used your bending on me," Mai mumbled. "I didn't like it, ok?"

"I didn't mean to scare you, jeez," Azula said, rolling her eyes. "Agni's sake, look at me."

Mai obeyed. "Well, you did," she said flatly. "You could have burned me."

"No I wouldn't. I have much better aim than Zuzu, I don't burn things I don't mean to burn."

Looking down again, Mai stared in stubborn silence at the fountain tiles. What was she supposed to say to that? _Well in that case, almost kill me all you want!_

"Come on, Mai, don't be such a sulkapus," Azula said, crouching down to her level. "Take your silly knife back. I won't firebend at you anymore, ok?"

Finally, Mai met the other girl's eyes. The princess was far too proud to ever sound apologetic, but there was a hint of something that was almost contrite in her voice. "Promise?"

"On my honor as a princess," she promised.

"Fine then," Mai relented, taking the proffered blade back and smiling slightly. It was hard to resist Azula when she actually had an earnest expression.

"Oh, I feel so much better now. I'm glad we're such great friends," Ty Lee said happily, dropping to the grass and engulfing them both in a hug.


	5. Politics

**Well, I realized there's an inaccuracy in my story. Turns out that according to the _Extras _Uncle Zoh (aka the Warden) is actually Mai's mother's brother, not her father's. I think I like the dynamic of him being Heizo's brother better though so I decided not to change it. Semi-apologetic apology to the Canonites.

* * *

**

**Politics.**

"Please hold still, Mai," her mother's housemaid said patiently, straightening her head again.

"It'd be easier to hold still if you weren't stabbing me in the head," Mai muttered crossly, sitting up as stiff and still as she could. Another pin jabbed into her scalp and she winced, but didn't flinch this time.

"Price of beauty," the maid said apologetically.

Mai sighed. She took a lot of pride in her glossy black hair, but she still hated having it looped and pinned like some silly confection whenever she was taken to see Prince Zuko. As if anyone cared if she had a couple extra braids.

"Oh Mai, there you are," said Lady Jien, hurrying into the dressing room.

_This is where you told me to go, where else would I be, exactly? _Mai thought flatly, then noticed the look of anxiety on her mother's face. "Yes, Mother."

"Lena, you should probably stop and take that all out," Jien said, then, much more gently, "Mai, dear, we won't be going to the Palace today. Perhaps not for a few days."

She'd be stuck at home for a few days? Ugh. Lovely. Like there was anything fun to do around here. Then her heart sank. Did this mean Zuko didn't want to see her anymore…? Or had Azula decided she was angry with Mai after all? "Why?"

"Nothing you should worry your head about, dear, just a little trouble at the war front," Lady Jien said, giving her a smile that looked more like a grimace. "The royal family would like some privacy while they…sort things out."

"Oh." There was no use in trying to coax more out of her. Mother and Father could always be counted on to tell her exactly nothing. It was easier to wait until there were guests, and simply listen during dinner. It was odd how easily adults would forget she was there and talk at length about all sorts of boring things when she was just sitting silently at the table, but seemed to think it was inappropriate to tell her directly. No doubt Mai would learn more than she'd ever want to know about the 'trouble at the front' over the next few days.

The next few long, boring days.

Abruptly her sullen imaginings of sitting around the house stewing in the lack of excitement were interrupted by an actually worrisome realization: Uncle Zoh was at the front. Where the 'trouble' was.

"Has there been a letter from Uncle?"

Lady Jien's hands fluttered like nervous birds, and Mai winced again as the maid tugged a little too hard on a hair floop. "Oh, yes, Zoh Cheng is just fine, Mai. Actually, he's going to be visiting. He's traveling back from the Earth Kingdom right now."

Mai straightened at that. She hadn't seen Uncle Zoh since she was seven, back when he left for the front. He was certain to bring back a caravan of presents and, unlike Mother and Father, be interested in seeing how her knife throwing skills were progressing. Perhaps he would even spar with her! And had she mentioned the exotic presents?

"So don't worry, Mai, everything will be sorted out," Jien said, and went on rambling about something. Mai tuned her out. Ok, the next few days would probably be a bit boring, but it would give her more time to train and focus on her throwing before Uncle Zoh came home. Whatever trouble was going on at the front was just some boring politics. Politics always made grownups act weird. It was probably no big deal.

Mai couldn't have been more wrong.

-o-

Sure enough, over dinner she found out far more than she wanted to know about the whole messy business.

It turned out that 'a little trouble at the front' was some kind of grownup code for the death of the crown prince's only son, the defeat of General Iroh's army at the siege of Ba Sing Se (she filed away 'siege' as a word to ask Azula about, since her parents would probably tell her not to worry her head), and the retreat of half the siege forces back to the capital and the scattering of the rest among the other divisions of the war front.

So that was why Uncle Zoh was coming to see them, Mai concluded, turning her attention to her plate spicy komodo chicken while Father and Admiral Izato continued blathering on about troop movements and other dull stuff. Azula would probably be furious and Zuko downcast over the army giving up at Ba Sing Se, so if there was anything else worth hearing, she'd probably get it from both sides, plus plenty more that wasn't worth hearing.

But a few days later, she found herself not getting carted off to the Palace, but still at home actually listening in to the dinner gossip. The 'sorting things out' that the royal family was up to was apparently also much more complicated than it sounded at first blush.

Just last night Fire Lord Azulon had passed away, and Lady Ursa had mysteriously vanished. Not only that, but on his deathbed, the Fire Lord had named Zuko and Azula's father as the new Fire Lord. Mai sighed into her pepper-pot soup. Mother and Father didn't dare express it out loud, but she didn't doubt they were delighted despite the tragedy that Prince Zuko and Princess Azula were now the first and second in line to take the throne. _Just think, someday you could be Fire Lady! Such an opportunity for your father! _

More politics. Just what Mai needed.

-o-

The next time she saw any of her friends was not in the inner courtyards or sunrooms of the Palace, but in the great Palace Plaza during Fire Lord Azulon's pyre and Lord Ozai's coronation. Decked out in mourning white, Mai stood straight and silent as was expected next to her mother while the people gathered and waited for the ceremony to begin. Up on the Palace steps, she could see the royal family (what was left of it) grouped at the side of the dais with several Fire Sages. They were too far away to see their faces clearly, but Zuko had his hands knotted behind his back.

Lady Ursa's absence left a noticeable gap in the huddle of people on the dais. Azula seemed happy to stand close to her father's side but Zuko stood a good arm's length away on his other side, as though to leave space for a missing person. Mai looked down at her white shoes. First their cousin dying, then their mom disappearing and their grandfather dying. Of course she hadn't known Prince Lu Ten or Fire Lord Azulon, but Lady Ursa had been nice. And Zuko had always been close to his mother, and he spoken often of Lu Ten's eventual victorious return from Ba Sing Se and showing his cousin how much he'd improved with the dual Dao blades.

Sighing, Mai looked up again, then realized she recognized the girl standing a little way in front of her.

"Oh, look, Mai. It's Ty Lee," Lady Jien bent down to murmur in her ear. "Why don't you go say hello. But come right back if they ring the gong to start."

"Yes, Mother."

Thank the spirits. If she had to stand here any longer with her parents while they worked to look patriotic, stoic, and mournful all at the same time, she'd go crazy. Especially after being stuck at home with them for a week. Even Ty Lee and her sickening cheerfulness would be an improvement, and surely even her mood would be dampened by a funeral.

"Ty Lee," Mai murmured, touching her white sleeve lightly to get her attention—just as she realized that the girl standing on the other side of Ty Lee was _also _Ty Lee.

The girl turned, blinking. "I'm not Ty Lee, I'm her sister Sun Lee," she said dully, as though this happened often and it had gotten old a long time ago. "I guess you must be Mai, she talks about you and the princess all the time."

"Yes," Mai said, hiding her confusion. She tucked her hands into her sleeves to check for the comforting leather of her knife sheathes. Was she going crazy? Beyond the other Ty Lee next to Sun Lee was _another _Ty Lee.

"Jin Lee, Jun Lee, have you seen Ty Lee?" asked Sun Lee.

"She went with Bai Lee—" started not-Ty Lee number 2, and not-Ty Lee number 3 finished, "—to get a better view."

"Oh, never mind, here they come," droned Sun Lee.

"Mai!" Ty Lee whispered loudly, ducking through the rows of people with yet another copy of herself. (Did her parents really let her run around wild like this? Tch.) At least Mai was pretty sure it was the real Ty Lee—

Mai had to take a steadying step back as the other girl threw her arms around her.

Yep. That was definitely Ty Lee.

"It's all so sad, Mai," the other girl practically cried into her shoulder. Mildly alarmed and thinking perhaps cheerful Ty Lee wasn't the worst possible thing after all, Mai gave her back a perfunctory pat.

"Well don't make a scene about it," Mai grumbled quietly. People were starting to stare.

"We're going to be over there with our parents," Sun Lee murmured, pointing and heading off in the directions she had indicated with the other Ty Lee copies. They didn't seem too sad to have found someone else with whom to leave their melodramatic sister.

"How many twins do you have, anyway?" she muttered, staring after them. Creepy.

Ty Lee loosened her death grip, her wide eyes rimmed in red. "Oh…heh…we're septuplets," she said, scrubbing at her cheeks with one hand and smiling broadly. But it was a strained-looking smile, like it had been pulled up at the edges and tacked into place. "Identical septuplets. That's seven of us."

For the first time it occurred to Mai to really appreciate that she was an only child.

"Poor Azula," Ty Lee said miserably. "Losing all that family at once…and Zuko too…." She finally released Mai only to loop their elbows together. "Have you talked to either of them yet?"

"No. I've been stuck at home with the Politician and the Worrier," Mai sighed, shifting a little uncomfortably against the arm looped in hers. "I haven't talked to _anyone_."

"Me neither," said Ty Lee. "I hope we get to come visit Azula again soon. I bet she could use some support right now."

"Yeah," Mai said, staring up at the dais and thinking that of the two children of the new Fire Lord, Azula was not the one that looked like she was in need of support.

-o-

Indeed, far from needing support, Princess Azula was so smug it bordered on obnoxious.

"I've always said Father would make a better Fire Lord than Uncle," she said, strolling in circles on the edge of the fountain like it was her own personal dais. "And Uncle pretty well proved it by giving up the siege. They'd even broken through the outer wall. Ba Sing Se was ripe for the picking. A few more weeks and the biggest city in the Earth Kingdom would have been defeated."

From the corner of her eye, Mai could see that Ty Lee was trying to exchange a look with her.

"Have you heard anything about your mom?" Ty Lee asked. There was no handspringing or somersaulting today. Instead she sat in lotus position in the grass near Mai's tree, plucking anxiously at the grass and making knots and plaits with the longer blades.

"No. I don't think she'll be coming back," Azula said airily. "It's all very tragic."

-o-

Crown Prince Zuko was in decidedly worse shape.

It felt off-balance and wrong sitting in the sunroom with a strange woman there with Mai and Zuko and Lady Jien instead of Lady Ursa. She was some member of the Fire Lord's household, Mai wasn't sure exactly who. They'd been introduced but she hadn't really been paying attention.

Whoever she was, she was keeping Lady Jien's attention off the two of them pretty well; the women were leaning in over the tea set, whispering and exchanging significant looks. Palace gossip, probably. Mai didn't care as long as they weren't paying too much attention to her and Zuko.

Zuko himself clearly didn't feel like chitchatting. His hands were clasped on the table in front of him so tightly that his knuckles were white. They made pointless small talk for a few minutes and he lost track of what he was saying in the middle of a sentence twice before Mai finally said flatly, "Zuko, if you don't want to talk then don't."

He exhaled and ducked his head down for a second (Mai hoped he wouldn't start crying—that would have been beyond weird). Then he said, "Something awful must have happened. Why else would she leave?"

Mai didn't have an answer. Instead she sat with him in silence, while their tea grew cold and the women murmured about intrigues and politics.

-o-

Weeks passed, and things settled somewhat. Things seemed a little tenser around the Palace; the servants were more skittish, the guards stiffer. Prince Zuko wouldn't talk about his mother, and Princess Azula wouldn't stop talking about her father. Predictably, as the mourning period for Fire Lord Azulon passed, Lord Heizo and Lady Jien let their delight show over their daughter being the likeliest candidate for betrothal to the Crown Prince. Life dragged on.

General Iroh and the other officers arrived after their long journey back from Ba Sing Se while she was at the Palace with Ty Lee and Azula. The girls saw them striding through the ambulatory, into the Palace proper. Azula said something about Uncle Nutcase and failure, but Mai didn't pay her much attention. If General Iroh was back, that meant Uncle Zoh might be back.

Sure enough, when she returned home, the stable hands were grooming an extra eelhound in the front courtyard. Mai never ran for anyone, but she walked a little quicker than her usual sedate pace to get into the house and to the guest suite.

The window slats were closed, leaving the chamber dark except for the row of lit tapers on the long, low table at the end of the room. The captain was seated with his back to the doorway in front of them, the flames rising and falling with his breathing. Meditating, Mai realized. Firebender stuff. She wondered if Azula and Zuko had to meditate, and figured they must. It was difficult to picture Azula looking peaceful, or Zuko concentrating. It looked pretty boring to Mai, but there had to be something to it—some heat or tickle of energy that made all that sitting and focusing worth the time, even a relief. Automatically her hands slid up the opposite sleeves, fingers running over the familiar contours of her knives. Not for the first time, though she'd rather die than admit it, Mai tried to imagine what it must feel like to call fire from nothing and throw it like a blade. Did it hurt?

Well, there was no point to speculating about it. Sighing silently, Mai waited for Uncle to notice she was there.

It was a while; not until a servant walking down the hall nearly ran into her and apologized out loud did he come out of his meditative state.

"I said I wished to be left undisturbed," Captain Zoh Cheng snapped, turning, but then his lantern-jawed face softened instantly on seeing his niece. "But of course you're the exception. Mai, cherry blossom, you've grown so much."

"Yes," Mai said, as he rose and they exchanged bows.

Uncle Zoh clasped her shoulder, and Mai didn't flinch away (neither was really the hugging type). "I expect you're here for presents."

-o-

The presents were all very nice, but really the best thing was that Uncle Zoh understood her interest in knife-fighting in a way her parents, neither of whom had ever been warriors, did not. Even better, he told Mai he was going to be stationed at the Prison Tower in the capital, so he'd be able to visit often and help her train.

"Your aim is excellent," he told her approvingly after demanding a demonstration of her skills. "You must learn to be more mobile, however. You can't stand still in the middle of a fight. Do they still teach gymnastics at the Academies? Are you learning martial arts?"

"Gross, Uncle," Mai groaned. "I'm not going to hit people with my hands. That's disgusting."

"There's nothing disgusting about the difference between living and dying in battle," Zoh Cheng reprimanded her harshly, and it struck Mai how much older he looked than he had before going away. The hollows under his eyes and of his cheeks had grown deep and sharp.

"What's it like on the battlefield?" Mai asked, unusually curious. The way Azula described it, it sounded exciting (if a bit gory). But Uncle made it sound like it wasn't that great at all.

Uncle Zoh was silent for a few moments. "Loud and messy. You would hate it." He ruffled her hair, making her scowl. "If I have anything to say about it, you'll never be on the front lines of a full-out battle, cherry blossom."

Mai raised her eyes quizzically. "Then why teach me to fight?"

"With friends like the Fire Prince and Princess, you're bound get pulled into some kind of fighting, though nothing like a pitched battle between armies," he pointed out. "And to keep the boys off. I hear my brother is already courting you to a young man."

"Yes," Mai said, coloring slightly and looking down at the knife in her hands. "Prince Zuko."

Zoh Cheng made a disapproving sound. "You're both young for a betrothal. You're not being pressured, are you? If I need to have words with my brother I'll do it right now."

"No, Uncle," Mai said, smiling a little. "It's fine."


	6. Rupture

**AN: And finally we get to an interesting part. I feel like the pace of the story has kind of dragged up to this point...I might come back when it's done and tighten up the first few chapters. Any thoughts on that are welcome...

* * *

**

**Rupture.**

Months and slow years passed without appreciable change. Mai endured classes, tolerated the martial training Uncle Zoh insisted she undergo, played with Azula and Ty Lee, and continued to meet with Prince Zuko once a week. Politics happened, seasons changed, blah blah blah.

Prince Zuko legally came into the title of Crown Prince in the spring at the golden age of thirteen. The ceremony and accompanying feast were wildly extravagant and extremely long and boring, with the exception of the mouth-scalding red pepper candies and the traditional demonstration of the young man's fighting skill against three masters. The whole thing was mostly ritual and largely rehearsed (Zuko had told her so a few days ago). He'd wanted to use his dual swords along with his firebending, but the Fire Sages had frowned on the highly untraditional idea and in the end his father had not allowed it.

Azula sulked through the entire thing, and Mai had a pretty good idea why: Zuko's title had been more or less a formality while he was a child. If by chance something had happened to Fire Lord Ozai, an interim ruler would have been put in place by the councilors, giving Azula time to somehow get her hands on the crown. Now, though, Zuko would be immediately crowned in the event of his father's death or incapacitation. Luckily the princess was sitting up at the royal table with the Fire Lord and his brother and councilors, so Mai didn't have to listen to her griping.

"Agh! How can you like these, Mai?" Ty Lee choked, eyes watering from the single piece of pepper candy she had tasted and spit out while Mai popped in three more.

Mai shrugged. To be honest, she could barely taste them at the moment; she was too focused on pretending not to watch Zuko down in the arena below as he prepared for his firebending demonstration. He had been confident when last she spoke to him, but Mai had never seen him firebend, only heard Azula's stories. There had been fewer of those in the last couple years, so perhaps he had improved somewhat. One could only hope. Mai wasn't terribly excited about firebending in general, but she'd rather not have to witness Prince Zuko embarrassing himself in front of half the Fire Nation. Actually, even trying to imagine Zuko firebending was a little weird; they talked so often about knives and swords and non-bending methods of fighting that sometimes she forgot he was a bender. She scooped another handful of spicy candies from the bowl. At this rate her tongue was going to be stained crimson long before the end of the night.

"Mai, do try to be more ladylike," Jien murmured in her ear, her fixed smile making her voice a little strained. "This is a very important function, and the most powerful people in the Fire Nation are here. You don't want to reflect poorly on your father."

"Yes, Mother," Mai sighed, pouring the candies onto her plate (carefully, so they wouldn't rattle against the porcelain) and resisting the urge to stick another in her mouth as soon as Jien turned to say something to her father. It was true, wolfing down the fiery candy like she was starving was an unforgivable show of her anxiety. Instead she stuck her hands up her sleeves and concentrated on her posture.

"What?" she said a moment later, suddenly realizing Ty Lee had been speaking to her.

"I said, I guess you must be pretty excited to see Prince Zuko show off his skills," Ty Lee said in the coy tone that she often used when mentioning Zuko to her, a tone Mai found irritating.

"Whatever," said Mai, tracing the edge of one of her knives instead of reaching for another piece of candy.

"Mai," said Ty Lee after a long moment, and Mai glanced over at her friend. Her brow was crinkled with uncharacteristic seriousness. She bent over to whisper so no one else could hear. "Do you even like him?"

"…What?" Mai asked flatly, raising an eyebrow.

"You know…Prince Zuko," the other girl said, making an uncomfortable one-shouldered shrug. "Sometimes it seems like you do, but sometimes…it's like you don't care one way or the other, or like you feel like you _have_ to like him. Your aura feels kinda…strained? Twisty? Or…confused."

Mai stared into her friend's expectant eyes, suddenly extremely conscious of both her parents sitting on the other side of her and of the fact that down on the arena platform, Zuko had taken his tunic off. Nothing Ty Lee had said seemed to be completely wrong or completely right, and she didn't particularly appreciate having her attention drawn the jumble of her own feelings. Messy, disordered, confused. She liked the fact that Ty Lee had picked up on it before she had even less.

"Does it matter?" she asked boredly, pulling a mental curtain over the tangle of thoughts. Turning forward again, she took another candy to suck on and steadfastly ignored Ty Lee until the other girl stopped staring at her.

In the end, all of her worrying was for nothing. As far as she could tell, Prince Zuko completed all of the forms perfectly. His face was unusually concentrated, mouth moving silently as though he were reminding himself of the order and names of the forms as he worked through them. When he finished, sending up a large fireball and looking up triumphantly toward the Fire Lord's table, Mai automatically joined in the applause and thought it was too bad the Fire Sages hadn't let him use his swords.

-o-

"Zuzu couldn't set a fire to a palace made of matches," Azula proclaimed at Academy the next day. "His forms were terrible, and he's far behind where he should be at his age."

"If you say so. Looked fine to me," Mai said indifferently (not noticing the sharp glare the princess shot at her).

-o-

She told him so the next time they met in Lady Ursa's sunroom.

"Thanks," Zuko said stiffly, not meeting her eyes. "I hope you enjoyed the party."

Mai shrugged. "It was…really long," she said, making an effort not to be _too _negative. The prince could be touchy about things like that. Apparently he knew her better than that, though, because his face darkened and he glared at a spot on the wall somewhere to her right. "Watching you firebend was ok though," she added.

It didn't cheer him up. "So I heard," he said sourly, scowling down at the table.

_What was _his _deal? _Mai wondered, becoming rather irritated herself. She didn't exactly pass out compliments every day, and Zuko was acting like she'd just insulted him. Glancing sideways to make sure Lady Jien and General Iroh weren't listening to them, she leaned forward and asked in a low voice, "What are you so charred about?"

The golden glare turned on her, unnervingly hot in its intensity. "I already got to hear what you thought of my firebending," he snapped, cheeks heating.

Back on the tightrope again. Mai sighed. "…What did Azula say?"

"I didn't say I heard it from Azula!" Zuko flared.

"Who else would you have heard it from?" Mai pointed out, rolling her eyes. This was so dumb. "Never mind, I don't care. You did fine, Zuko, and I never said you didn't."

He was still glaring. It was making Mai angry. Crossing her arms and hunching (then remembering it was unladylike and straightening again), she snapped, "Since when do you believe everything Azula tells you?"

Zuko looked away sharply, fiddling with his teacup. "Azula always lies," he said under his breath, as though it were a saying or proverb.

"Well, not always, but a lot," Mai muttered.

"You're her friend," he said accusingly.

"That's nothing new, so what's your problem now?"

Apparently Zuko didn't have a retort for that matter-of-fact response. The weight of the obvious question hanging between them tugged at her—_if you had to pick, would you take her side or mine?—_but he didn't ask. Maybe he thought he already knew the answer and didn't want to hear it. In all honesty, she didn't have an answer. Mai preferred to pretend the problem didn't exist.

The moment dragged by, and the prince showed no sign of coming around, still scowling sullenly at his tea. "_I've _never lied to you," Mai finally said, picking at her nail broodingly.

"I haven't either," Zuko snapped.

"I didn't say you did," Mai said crossly, glaring through her fringe, at out of nowhere he grinned and looked away, like the sun after the morning downpour. "What?"

"Nothing," Zuko said quickly, smiling like a dork as though he couldn't help it.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he said again, flushing a little. "You just look pretty when you're mad."

Mai sighed disgustedly. "Honestly, Zuko…."

It was sweet, though, in a ridiculous kind of way. Too bad he was the prince and her mother was sitting across the room. She probably wouldn't get away with throwing her seat cushion at him.

-o-

Zuko had always been interested in the war, but since turning thirteen, it was almost all he ever talked about. Or rather, fretted about. The legal weight now given to his title seemed to have sparked in him a nagging anxiety that something might happen to his father at any second.

"I've never led a war before," he confided in Mai one day, as though this might surprise her. "I'm not even sure what I would do if I were the Fire Lord."

Mai sighed. All of this melodrama, for something that in all likelihood wouldn't happen for like, fifty years. If Fire Lord Ozai was as much like his daughter as Mai thought, he'd probably cling to the throne until he was senile and the war was long over. "That's what councilors and stuff are for, aren't they? They'll advise you on what to do."

"Yeah, I guess," said Zuko, unconvinced. "But I should still know _something_, shouldn't I?"

It was something of a struggle not to roll her eyes, and in the end she gave up and just did it. "Zuko, you'll be fine. Stop worrying so much."

He still looked rather grim. Mai was getting tired of talking about it, though, so she changed the subject. "How are things going with your new swords master?"

Immediately the prince brightened. "Really well," he said, then, "That reminds me, I have something for you!"

He waved a servant over to them. Moving the tea set out of the way, the man set a wooden box on the table and backed away, bowing. The box was large but flat, and the Fire Nation insignia was worked in gold on the lid, bright against the rich red wood. Turning it on the tabletop so Mai could see better, Zuko popped the golden latches and opened it.

Inside, nestled safely in a black velvet casing, were at least twenty daggers in several shapes and sizes. The deep red lacquer and exotic curved shapes of them made them look like flames, and the steel edges glittered. Mai ran a finger along the silky smooth edge of one. The blades were far keener than any of her practice darts. Real weapons. She shut her mouth, realizing belatedly that it had fallen open.

"I had them made for you," Zuko said happily. "Do you like them?"

Mai carefully lifted a gleaming dagger out of its casing. The heft of it was perfect in her hand, sleek and flawless. "…Yeah. I do. Thanks, Zuko."

Things weren't really _so _bad, Mai reflected during the palanquin ride home, ignoring whatever it was Mother was saying about her new knives. The sky seemed bluer today than usual through the sheer curtains, and while she didn't much care for blue, there were worse colors. She fingered the glassy-smooth gold insignia on the box, which she had insisted on holding in her lap despite Lady Jien's resigned disapproval. In fact, things were kind of ok.

She should have known better.

-o-

"Mai! Mai? Are you here? Of course you are," Lady Jien babbled, hurrying into the courtyard garden. Mai looked over her shoulder quizzically, lowering the dagger she'd been aiming at one of her training targets. "Put that down for now, Mai, there's a very serious—we have something of a –of a situation on our hands, and the princess is here to see you—"

"Azula is _here_?" Mai repeated, frowning as her mother seized her by the wrist and began to pull her inside. The princess never came to Mai or Ty Lee's houses. They were always expected to come at _her_ convenience. "Ow! What are you talking about?"

"Be quiet, Mai, and listen to me," Jien hissed in a rush, dragging her reluctant daughter up the courtyard steps and down the hall. "There's been some kind of incident—we don't know exactly what happened, all sorts of rumors are going around, but Prince Zuko has been banished—"

"What?" Mai halted, and was nearly yanked off her feet.

"—Not right now, Mai, listen to me! We're in a very tenuous position here, this could mean disaster for your father! Find out as much as you can from the princess, and make sure you don't say anything that will make her think we are more sympathetic to the prince than the Fire Lord—you may act surprised, but remember not to seem too upset, we must distance ourselves as much as possible—and for heaven's sake put that away!" Plucking the red-lacquered dagger from her daughter's hand, Lady Jien moved as though to stick it in her pocket, thought better of it, wavered for a moment then dropped it into a nearby vase as they passed.

"_Mother!_"

"Oh dear, I wish you had time to change," Lady Jien fretted, stopping her outside the doors to the reception room and holding her in place by the shoulders, giving her a last-second look-over. "Stand up straight, Mai. Stop scowling like that—remember your manners, of course, and remember, the most important thing right now is to show that we're loyal to the royal family."

"But—"

"_Quiet_!" And with that, her mother opened one of the heavy double doors and led the way inside, bowing. "Here is Mai, Princess, as you requested. May I offer you tea or—"

"No, that will be all," Azula drawled. She had made herself comfortable, legs crossed and leaning back in Lord Heizo's large, blocky chair. It was a little bizarre seeing someone else sit in Father's place, but the princess seemed completely at ease in the throne-like seat. "You may go now."

"Ah—yes, Princess," Lady Jien said quickly, giving Mai an unobtrusive prod forward, then bowing again and backing out the doors.

The sound of the door thudding into place was jarring, like falling into cold water, or a static shock that stung in the bones instead of the skin. Numb and mind racing to nowhere—had she heard her mother right? Why was she here again? What was Zuko—no. She had to keep a straight face. Shoving the whole messy tangle to the back of her mind and shutting the door on that too, she stepped forward.

"Princess Azula," Mai droned, folding her hands into her sleeves and bowing.

"Oh, do sit down, Mai," Azula said, waving her hand. "And I've said you don't have to call me Princess."

Yeah, and every time she said it was clear that really, she loved it when they called her by her title, and loved calling attention to it even more.

"Of course, Azula," Mai said, settling herself down onto the couch where guests usually sat. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"Oh, I just thought I'd drop by and catch up a bit. So much has been going on up at the Palace," Azula said, burnt-amber eyes glittering.

"Mm, really?" It was much easier to sound bored and unenthusiastic when she kept her mind blank and focused on her fingernails instead of any of the things Mother had said.

"Haven't you heard? I'm surprised," Azula said, clearly not believing it for a moment.

Still, she told her. The prince speaking out of turn in the war meeting, the Agni Kai, Zuko's refusal to fight the Fire Lord. His subsequent banishment, leaving Azula the nominal heir to the throne. The princess didn't even bother to hide her smug satisfaction over this last detail.

"That was…sudden," Mai commented blandly.

"Well the Agni Kai was just yesterday afternoon," the princess pointed out, smirking as her fingers curled over the edges of the armrests. "Zuzu's not gone just yet, but he will be as soon as the doctor releases him."

Her gut twisted; Mai had to take a silent breath in and out to blank her mind again before speaking. "I thought you said he refused to fight."

"Oh, he did," Azula said, relishing the words. "He crawled and begged like a pathetic child. Just like I would have expected of Zuzu. But Father didn't let him just get away with it. I think you won't find him quite so attractive now, with half his face melted off."

Mai made a noncommittal sound. "I see."

Azula laughed. "Do you know, Mai, that's what I like about you. You really just don't care. Your apathy amazes even me sometimes."

"…Thanks."

"Anyway, I thought it would be best to drop by and let you hear the news directly," Azula said, examining her nails critically. "I'm sure _you_ aren't concerned at all, but if you do think there might be political consequences to you or your father as a result of all of this, I _am_ your friend. Just say the word and I can deal with any…problematic people."

"Of course, Princess."

-o-

Azula didn't stay much longer after that. There was plenty going on up at the palace to keep her occupied, after all. It was a wonder she'd found the time to come visit. Mai walked the princess back to her palanquin herself, bowing and giving a polite, automatic response to Azula's invitation to return to the palace to visit as soon as she liked. Raising a hand but not quite waving, she watched as the palanquin was marched out the gates to return to the royal compound.

Then Mai went back to the courtyard to resume her interrupted target practice.

Step, drop the dagger from the sheath to the hand, bend the arm, turn, straighten the arm with the turn and release at full momentum, step, drop, rock to the back leg, turn, throw. Blocking out everything except the shift and balance, movement could become a perfect extension of intent without even thought to confuse things in between; fluid, precise, deadly. The sound of the red-lacquered daggers thudding into the wooden targets, the weight of them in her hands; the lowering orange sun caught them like fire, glaring on the mirrored blades and the surface of the koi pond and the white-washed walls in such a blaze that Mai could almost believe it was indeed fire she was throwing and not knives, and that the entire courtyard was in flames, except that even despite the exertion she was freezing.

"Mai?"

No. Not right now. The last thing she wanted to do was talk, and the last thing she wanted to talk about was _politics. _Step, shift, throw, thud.

"Mai!"

Step, flow, drop, step, turn, thr—

A large hand closing around her wrist made her drop the knife in surprise, sending it to clatter on the tiling stones. "Young lady, do not ignore your mother," Lord Heizo growled. "Be respectful."

"…Ok," Mai said tonelessly. "What."

"You know very well what. What did the Princess have to say? Are the rumors true? Has the Prince been banished?"

"Yes."

"And?"

Mai stared at the ground, oddly struck by her parents' feet and her own, and how much larger theirs were than hers how weirdly close they were standing. "…And what?"

"And, what else did Princess Azula say?" her mother pressed.

What else did Azula say? All kinds of things. What did they _want _from her? Didn't they have their own ways of finding out things about politics? Why couldn't they just have dinner with someone and find these things out? "She said—she said half his face is melted off," Mai managed, the only thing she could even remember clearly enough to articulate.

Her father sighed impatiently, and Lady Jien said in that controlled voice she got when she was worried and trying to hide it, "Alright, but did she say anything about your father and his position at court? Does the royal family have any concern about our loyalty?"

A shudder of anger trembled her shoulders, and she yanked her arm from her father's grip, heading back toward the house. "I don't know. I don't care!"

"Mai!" Lady Jien hurried after, catching up and seizing her by the arms, turning her around. "We don't have time for your dramatics, young lady," she said angrily. "This could be the end of your father's career. I know this may be difficult for you, but you need to just forget about Prince Zuko for now and try to think about the bigger pic—"

"You _wanted_ me to like him," Mai cried, wrenching away. "You threw me at him and tried to _make_ me like him, and now you want me to just forget about it? What now, you just pick some other boy who hasn't been banished yet and I start liking him instead?"

"That is _enough_, Mai," Lady Jien snapped. "You will be respectful when you speak to me and your father, and you will do as you're told. We all must make sacrifices to maintain our position in society. This behavior is completely unbecoming."

"Unbecoming?" Mai repeated disbelievingly, distantly aware that she sounded rather hysterical. "_Unbecoming_? Are you crazy?"

"_Quiet!"_ her father thundered. "Mai, if you cannot say anything polite, you will say _nothing._ If you must be confined until your room until you can deal with this situation calmly, then, spirits help me, that can be arranged."

Say nothing? Fine. Mai was perfectly capable of arranging _that_.


	7. Spiraling

**Does anyone know what the deal with the Story Edit thing is right now? A bunch of my stories (this one included) won't let me get to the main edit page, but it only seems to be for certain fandoms. I figured out a workaround to add chapters but I can't update the silly summary...anyone heard more about this than I have?

* * *

  
**

**Spiraling.**

It took two days for Mai's parents to notice her unofficial vow of silence. Most of that time she spent in her room, lying on her bed and throwing knives at the wall, and taking vindictive pleasure in the gouges she was leaving in the plaster. It wasn't until dinner on the second night, while old Lord Kai Toh was visiting, that anyone gave her permission to say anything anyway.

"Things hadn't been going so well for a while," Heizo was telling his guest. "But Mai and Princess Azula are still very close. Isn't that right, Mai?"

With perfect posture and perfect table manners, Mai sipped another spoonful of soup and ignored the question.

They wanted a stupid, mute, emotionless doll? Fine. That was exactly what they would get.

"Mai," Jien prompted her gently. "Aren't you still good friends with the princess?"

_Oh yes, Mother. Very good friends. The best. Go away._

It was actually pretty tasty soup. Spicier than usual, the way Mai liked it. It was burning her mouth a little, but she didn't care.

"She's just a little overwhelmed by the suddenness of the events of the last few days," Lord Heizo said with a nervous chuckle. "You know how delicate young ladies can be."

"Are you _trying_ to make our lives more difficult?" her father demanded as soon as Kai Toh was gone. "This sort of childishness will not be tolerated, young lady!"

Mai let the tirade wash over her in stony silence. What were they going to do, lock her in her room? Fine. That was where she'd rather be. Unlike Zuko's father, Lord Heizo didn't have the ability to burn her in punishment for being disrespectful.

For four days no amount of lecturing, shouting, cajoling, or bribery would elicit a word from her. Father wasn't such a high-ranking politician for nothing, however. He knew how to manipulate people.

"I hear you've been difficult lately, cherry blossom."

The unexpected sound of the familiar voice actually made her miss the center of the target she was aiming for by an entire fingerwidth. She turned. Uncle Zoh stood at the bottom of the courtyard steps, arms crossed and the lines of his face dark with displeasure. Mai's hands clenched into fists. Great. Another person come to lecture her.

But then he growled, "Are you alright?" and Mai realized it wasn't _her_ that he was angry with.

Uncle and niece sat in silence on the courtyard steps as the sky darkened. For once Mai didn't mind the proximity, and when he put an arm around her shoulders she leaned into the comforting warmth and solidity, not realizing until now how much she needed it.

"What will happen now?" Mai rasped. Talking felt strange, tickling and scratching her throat.

"You will continue your training and education," Zoh Cheng said in his drill-instructor voice. "And I expect my brother will insist you continue cultivating your friendship with the princess."

"Father is going to make me marry someone else, isn't he," she said, fear clutching sickeningly at her stomach. What were the odds that the next would be her age? What if he was old like Izato, or harsh like Ozai, or a pervert like Kai Toh's son, or expected her to be nothing but a doll, like Father?

"I'll speak to him before I'm stationed," he promised her grimly.

"Stationed?" Unconsciously, Mai's grip on her uncle's sleeve tightened.

"I've been reassigned as the Warden of the prison at the Boiling Rock. I leave this month."

"…Ah." That was far away, Mai knew. She'd seen it on a map in school. Her heart sank, and suddenly the dimming red of the courtyard seemed colorless, the evening air colder, and even the deepening shadows more grey than black.

"I expect you to write to me every month," Uncle Zoh told her sternly.

"Yes, Uncle," Mai agreed automatically, gazing bleakly at the darkening shadows of her knife targets.

-o-

Hiding in the servants' hallway with her ear pressed to the service door of the reception room was not very dignified, but Mai was pretty sure this was not a conversation that she'd ever hear repeated over the dinner table.

"She's barely thirteen!" Zoh Cheng growled. She could hear the clump of his boots pacing back and forth.

"It's a delicate situation, Zoh," Heizo snapped. "Everyone in the capital knows that she and Prince Zuko were in courtship for the past three _years. _If we don't start making overtures in other places, people will suspect that we still sympathize—"

"Or they may come to the conclusion that you're willing to whore out your daughter to the highest bidder that comes along!" the elder brother snarled back.

"I assure you, _brother_, that simply because our father's arrangements for _you_ fell through does not mean arranged marriages are inherently bad. Perhaps your time at the front has dulled your political instinct. This is simply a natural part of high society."

"To ashes with your high society! I'll char my own eyes before I allow some old man to touch _my niece _because _you're _afraid of losing a seat in the Ministry!"

"She might be your niece, but she's _my_ daughter!" There was a heavy scraping sound—Father's chair, shoved back as he stood suddenly. "Don't forget that, Zoh Cheng."

Never mind. She really didn't want to hear this after all. Silently, Mai flitted back down the hall to her room.

-o-

It was strange, how someone could simply fall out of life so easily, with everyone acting like they had never been there in the first place. Azula was more than happy to embrace her life as an only child, and everyone else was too scared to mention the banished prince anywhere they might be overheard. It was as though he had been completely forgotten, except as a sort of myth—the disowned prince who had gone off to chase the Avatar, another myth which Mai had never entirely believed in.

When she finally allowed herself to think about Zuko, a few weeks after the fact, Mai had difficulty remembering his face. Not that it mattered. The face she remembered was no longer his, and she didn't really want to try to imagine what it looked like now.

What was the point, anyway? It wasn't like Mai was ever going to see him again. It was easier to just let herself forget. It was easier to just not care.

She put the red-lacquered knives back in their box and hid it at the bottom of a chest of clothing she never wore.

Completely unsurprisingly, her parents did indeed have another young man lined up for her within just a couple months. Uncle Zoh must have made some sort of impression on his younger brother, because he at least wasn't _too _much older—just sixteen. It took her about thirty seconds to decide Keizan was a dull, stuffy teen with weird teeth in whom she had no interest whatsoever. Luckily he was about as happy with the situation as she was. After only two visits he must have said something to his parents, because Lady Jien didn't drag her to see him again.

This became a wearing pattern over the months. Borzan, Jeong Lo, Zaidoh, and Kurang were all similarly rejected. The fact that they existed and her mother wanted her to meet them was grounds enough for disliking them, and her cold, unenthusiastic attitude quickly quelled any interest they might have had.

Time dragged by like an old lionturtle through dry sand. She endured the dubious honor of menarche, and the mother-daughter lectures that came with it. At the age of fourteen she and her friends graduated from the Academy. Not that school had been enjoyable per se, but not having it meant that much more time at home, trying to find something to occupy her time. She wound up finding ways to extend the time it took to do daily tasks—brushing her hair, filing and lacquering her nails, polishing her knives. Some days she spent the entire morning getting ready.

_Ready for nothing,_ Mai thought, staring blankly at her reflection in the vanity mirror.

Apparently there was plenty of room to sink lower, however.

She barely even thought about it when she was summoned to her mother's sunroom anymore. It was always the same thing—a new suitor they'd found for her. Mai came as called and tolerated the disgusting glow of her mother's smile, prepared to ignore the personal details of the new boy. Judging by how happy Lady Jien looked, it had to be someone with quite a pedigree. That was rather remarkable, given how Father constantly lectured her that options were getting rather thin.

As it turned out, it _was_ about a boy with a good pedigree—just not in the way Mai was thinking.

"Mai, you're going to have a brother," Jien said in that voice that always meant Mai was supposed to be happy about something that made only her parents happy.

Great. Just what her parents had always wanted. With Mai's luck, the little twerp would probably turn out to be a firebender too, while his older sister continued to aggravate their parents by not being betrothed to a crown prince.

If it weren't for Azula and Ty Lee, Mai probably would have dissolved into a puddle of listless gloom.

Ty Lee had recently taken up a new martial form that Azula was quite impressed with.

"Alright, Ty Lee, show me," the princess said, waving a hand at the guard she'd had brought in to use as a test dummy. "You, whatever your name is, you may fight back if you like."

"Of course, Princess," Ty Lee said brightly, then ran at him.

The guard seemed a little dubious about attacking a teenage girl in pink ruffles, but before he could quite make up his mind Ty Lee made it up for him. With three well-placed jabs the man was down, arms sticking out at odd angles and an expression of confused alarm on his face.

"Excellent," Azula marveled under her breath, then ordered, "Now, firebend."

"I—I can't, Princess," the man said after a few weak twitches, sweat breaking out on his forehead. Mai looked on with interest. A bender stripped of his weapons by a non-bender. The notion was immensely satisfying, and she actually smirked back when Ty Lee grinned at her.

"Excellent," Azula said again, waving in some servants to take the immobilized firebender away. "You know," she said, eyeing her friends appraisingly, "Between the two of you, you're quite the little fighting force. Perhaps we should start training together."

And Azula always got what Azula wanted. Later that week the three girls began training as a team, against whatever volunteers (or conscripts, more likely) Azula could command from the ranks of her father's guards. Mai had never thrown her knives at people before, but found that pinning sleeves and loose tunics on moving targets came to her as quickly as throwing them at stumps. The princess was right. Between Mai and Ty Lee's abilities to immobilize enemy combatants and the sheer terror of Azula's blue flames, the three girls could often match and defeat older and more experienced opponents, and as time went on, could even do so outnumbered.

Mai lived for those hours in the arena, when she could forget about boys and politics and focus on just the now, on daggers that did _her _bidding and the rush of adrenaline singing hot in her veins. Running and turning and throwing in the midst of combat, even play combat, was the only time she felt alive.

But even that couldn't last, could it.

-o-

It was getting dark in the courtyard. Soon Mother would probably call her in for dinner, complaining as usual that she shouldn't strain her eyes in the dark. Mai could have told her that she didn't need to, she knew all the targets here so well she could pin them all with her eyes closed; but Jien never asked, so Mai didn't say so.

She was pulling the daggers out of the targets for the thirtieth time and sliding them carefully back into their sheathes when she heard the rustling at the far side of the courtyard, turning just in time to see a dark shape drop from the top of the wall into the flowering bushes.

Adrenaline sparked through her and she automatically pivoted. The knife flew from her hand before it even occurred to Mai to demand, "Who's there?"

There was a quiet _chnk_ as the blade hit the wall, and a gasp.

"_Ty Lee_?" Mai said incredulously, sweeping across the garden to find her friend pinned to the wall by one sleeve.

"Your aim is so amazing, Mai!" Ty Lee whispered cheerily, prying the blade out and freeing herself.

"…What are you doing here?" asked Mai, looking the other girl up and down. Instead of her usual obnoxious pinks she was swathed in dark grey, with an oversized black cloak, and there was a large knapsack looped over her shoulder.

"I've decided to run away," Ty Lee replied, bouncing on her heels with excitement and dropping the knife into Mai's suddenly nerveless fingers.

"Run away?" Mai echoed. "…From what?"

"Not from, running _to_. The BrightTop Circus is leaving the capital tonight to tour the Fire Nation. I'm going to join them!" her friend whispered happily, clasping Mai's hands in hers.

"…The circus."

"That's right," Ty Lee beamed.

"Why the circus?" Mai asked, not certain enough if Ty Lee was actually serious to be scandalized.

"It's my calling, Mai," she said, dropping the other girl's hands and pressing her own to her heart. "I can just feel it's meant to be!"

"…I see," said Mai. She couldn't imagine—

—on second thought, she could definitely imagine Ty Lee in the circus. They probably had to go miles out of their way looking for the sorts of people who preferred walking on their hands to their feet.

Mai was still trying to decide how disapproving she should be of the notion when she found herself engulfed in a tight hug.

"I just couldn't leave without saying goodbye, though," Ty Lee said, voice muffled in her shoulder. She broke away, hands still on Mai's shoulders, and looked up at her entreatingly. "You will tell Azula I said goodbye, won't you?"

"I guess so."

"And please don't tell anyone else. I don't want—" she hesitated. "I don't want my parents to try to send anyone after me. Promise, Mai?"

"…I promise."

"Thanks, Mai." Mai winced as Ty Lee crushed her into another tight embrace. "I'll miss you girls so much, but I'll write to you when I can!"

"Yes," Mai said numbly.

And with a skip, spring and a flip, Ty Lee was gone over the wall as though it were nothing but a low garden fence.

The darkness deepened as Mai stared up at the top of the wall where her friend had disappeared, still processing what had just happened. Had it been real, or had her mother finally driven her crazy?

For a sudden moment, as though the darkness itself had weight like heavy folds of wool wrapped tight around her, she felt unbearably stifled. Running away. Away from these too-familiar walls, away from her parents and the unborn brother they had hoped she would be, away from politics and young men she didn't want to meet. _My calling_, Ty Lee had said, and in that instant Mai could almost imagine what that meant—being what she was expected to be not because she forced herself to be it, but because it had always been meant to be.

But the moment quickly passed. Calling? Mai didn't think she believed she had a calling any more than that she had an aura. What could it possibly be, if it did exist, and how would she know anyway? And suppose she did run away, what then? Where would she go? To Uncle Zoh? The Boiling Rock was hardly a fun or appropriate place for a teenage girl to hang out, and he'd probably send her back anyway. And she didn't know how Ty Lee could bear the idea of leaving this, this life of luxury, of servants and whatever she felt like wearing or eating whenever she wanted it, for the squalor and uncertain future of the circus. Scraping by day by day by performing for other's entertainment. Mai shuddered.

"Mai, are you still out here? Come inside, dear, it's time for dinner."

Realizing she'd been holding her breath, Mai sighed, somehow exhausted and defeated even though she hadn't been doing anything but standing there staring at a wall. "Coming, Mother."

She turned. Lady Jien's silhouette against the golden light of the doorway clearly showed the proud swell of her belly, one slender hand holding it protectively.

"Is something the matter, Mai?" Lady Jien asked, and Mai had to fight a mad desire to laugh. As if she were actually meant to say if she was unhappy.

"No, Mother. Nothing."

-o-

There was a small kerfuffle over Ty Lee's disappearance. Mai was questioned, first by her parents and then by Ty Lee's mother, a tiny, harried-looking woman whose hair was already going grey. She kept her promise to her friend, though, and told no one but Azula where she had gone.

"The circus?" Azula had said when she relayed the message, raising a quizzical brow. "If I didn't know you better, Mai, I'd think you were joking."

The princess was becoming busier and busier. The Fire Lord seemed willing and even eager to include her in the inner workings of his government in a way that Mai couldn't recall Zuko ever talking about. Since Ty Lee had run away, they'd suspended their training sessions, and Azula was often occupied with meetings with her father and his generals or councilors anyway. When she wasn't doing politics, Azula was working on advanced forms with her firebending masters or, weirdly enough, reading about old wars and battles. This last Mai knew because on the rare occasions they saw each other Azula liked to explain the strategies of dead generals to her.

Azula definitely found the subject more interesting than Mai did.

"We're not in school anymore," Mai said a little disgustedly when Azula started drawing some comparison that made no sense to her between some battle at the front she'd never heard of and some battle sixty years ago she'd never heard of. "Why do you care about all this stuff?"

Azula just laughed. "Oh, Mai," she said, amused. "I'm glad I can always count on you to throw knives in the direction I point without concerning yourself about the big picture."

Whatever. Mai would have been glad if they could practice fighting instead of talking about it.

Then there was the birth of her brother. For whatever reason, Jien insisted her daughter be there for the birth. Apparently it was a woman thing. Mai sat dutifully by her mother's side and allowed her to clutch at her hand while trying not to throw up.

"How long is this going to take?" she asked, wincing at her mother went into contractions again, gripping her hand so hard she thought her fingers would break. That was exactly the last thing she needed, to not be able to even throw knives for several months.

"_Arrrrrgh_!" Lady Jien looked almost feverish, brow scarlet with the strain and deeply furrowed. "So _glad_ you can always keep things in _perspective_, _dear_," she growled through gritted teeth, then cried out again in pain.

Heizin Tom was born screaming, purple, and healthy. Sitting up gingerly and accepting the shrieking bundle from the midwife, Jien stared at it as though entranced and said he was the most beautiful little boy she'd ever seen.

"Mother, it looks like a stewed ocean kumquat," Mai said flatly.

"Well, you looked like a stewed ocean kumquat too when you were born," her mother said sourly. "Give Tom-Tom some time and he'll be just as handsome as you are beautiful."

"…_Tom-Tom_? Are you seriously going to call him that?"

"It's a cute little nickname for a cute little boy," Jien cooed, tickling her son's gummy nose.

"Ugh..."

Far from being cute, it reminded Mai of Azula's insulting nickname for _her _brother, 'Dum-Dum'.

"Mai, would you like to hold your brother?"

The new sister stared at the squirming, slimy, yowling red _thing _in her mother's arms. "…Why would I want to do _that_?"

With an aggravated sigh, Lady Jien tucked Heizin (Mai would be charred before she'd even _think_ of him as 'Tom-Tom') back into the crook of her arm. "Honestly, Mai, I don't understand why you insist on being so negative about everything all the time."

_Maybe because everything is wretched?_ Mai thought drily as Jien turned her attention back to her younger child. Thinking of Azula and her brother, not to mention her own father's strained relationship with _his _brother, Mai couldn't help but feel that there was some expectation she regard Heizin Tom as a rival of some sort. But honestly, at the moment she was just grossed out.

"Yes, you're just a precious little boy, aren't you, Tom-Tom?" her mother crooned.

Ugh.

-o-

Even listening to Azula blather about politics was better than being at home now. Even having to meet young men was better than—well, ok, maybe not. Being dragged to courtship dates was roughly equal to putting up with baby puke and incessant squalling. Really, there wasn't that much difference between them.

Boring wasn't the right word for it. Life was just awful. There was never a moment's quiet, everything smelled like baby, all her parents talked about was the baby—sometimes she almost wanted to throw her brother out the window just so she could get five minutes of peace. For the first few months, Mai felt as though she were constantly simmering with frustration she couldn't show, like a water kettle forgotten on the coals. But of course she couldn't snap back or even raise her voice, because that upset the baby, and she really shouldn't carry her knives everywhere, because the baby might accidentally pick one up and hurt himself, and she shouldn't this and she shouldn't that, because the baby.

The only way to escape, which had served her so well already, was to just not care.

Whenever Heizin Tom cried or her mother snapped, Mai sighed and shrugged and pretended she wasn't aggravated until it was true. When her father got frustrated and lectured her because yet another potential suitor had fallen through, Mai let the words pass in one ear and out the other without leaving an impression. Getting all worked up about things just wasn't worth the effort.

"Are you even listening, Mai?" Azula drawled.

The two girls were hanging out in Azula's room today, the princess pacing around like a wildcat in a cage while Mai lounged on the chaise and idly flipped one of her knives over and over.

"Yeah," muttered Mai. "You were saying some commander reported a sighting of the Avatar."

It wasn't until she said the words herself that their actual meaning filtered into her mind.

"Huh," she said disinterestedly. "So he exists after all."

"Oh yes, the Avatar exists," Azula said, eyes narrowing as she came to a halt at her window and stared out into the heavy winter rain, as though she might see him herself. "According to the reports, my idiot brother let him escape."

Mai didn't even let that train of thought leave the station.

"This war is nearing its end, Mai," the princess went on, hands clasped behind her back. "Soon the 16th and 4th Divisions will rendezvous with the 12th to lay siege to Omashu. The Avatar has been discovered and my father will have him tracked down and neutralized. With Sozin's Comet returning this summer, we have the opportunity to amend Uncle's failure at Ba Sing Se. By this time next year, this will be the capital of an Empire."

"Great," Mai yawned.

As it turned out, it wasn't so great.

"What," said Mai a few days later, actually listening now, and certain she had misheard.

"Fire Lord Ozai has appointed your father governor of Omashu," Jien repeated. To her credit, even she seemed to have mixed feelings about the notion, though she was obviously trying very hard to make it sound like a good thing to Mai.

Why she bothered, Mai wasn't sure. It wasn't as though anything her mother had recently told her had ever added substantially to her happiness with the world in general, regardless of the tone of its delivery.

"…Omashu hasn't even been conquered yet," Mai pointed out flatly.

"No, but it will be by the time we get there, dear," Lady Jien said, sounding none to certain of this assertion. "The journey will take several weeks."

"We're moving to the colonies," Mai said blankly. The words tasted sour in her mouth.

"Yes, and it's a great honor," her mother said. It was unclear who she was trying to convince.

"Yeah, right," Mai muttered. This was ridiculous. If she believed in that sort of thing, she'd have thought someone or something out there was out to get her. Almost everyone in her life had left for one reason or another, her family was slowly driving her insane, and now she was going to be stuck—with only her insane family for company—in the _colonies_? Out in the middle of nowhere? "Even you don't think that, Mother."

"I wish you'd have a more positive outlook, Mai," Lady Jien snapped. "This is an advancement for your father. Perhaps he could have climbed the ladder closer to home if you weren't so determined to undermine all of his efforts to form alliances here."

_Oh, so this is _my _fault? _Mai thought bitterly.

"This is a chance for a fresh start," Lady Jien went on.

_Yeah…a fresh batch of nobles' sons. Excuse me while I go get my party hat._

"And just think, we'll be the wealthiest family in town!"

Mai sighed.


	8. Exile

**Exile**.

The three weeks it took to travel to the Earth Kingdom city felt like at least a year. The longest, lousiest year of Mai's life to date.

This could largely be chalked up to the fact that she spent most of the journey horrendously seasick. The little wavelets and currents of the great bay in Fire Nation waters were fine, but after turning south from the Fire Fountain City and into the open sea, the ship tipped and yawed day and night over the great ocean rollers as though it were trying to decide which side it preferred to throw its passengers off of. Mai spent a week practically immobilized in bed, stomach lurching along with the ship and head pounding with every clang and clatter and screech the iron leviathan made. On the rare occasions she forced herself out of the stuffy darkness of the hold for a breath of clean air, she was quickly driven back inside by the spray-laden gale that swept across the deck. Her father, trying to cheer his miserable daughter, described it as 'refreshing'. If Mai had been at all in a talking mood, she would have described it as being pierced through with thousands of tiny daggers made of ice.

As if the ship and the ocean and the cold weren't bad enough, Mai had to put up with all of those things packed into a relatively small space with her parents and Heizin Tom.

Now that he had marginally more personality than a squirming blob of snot, Mai's brother was growing to be as happy and easily entertained as his sister was gloomy and bored. Nothing could seem to quell his gurgling laughter. Mai was half convinced he did it just to spite her.

"Yeah, enjoy it now, pukeface," she told him wearily the morning land finally hove in sight. Their parents had wanted to have a family moment up on the deck, gazing with dramatic hope at their new promised land or some tripe, but Mai had flatly refused to leave their quarters. That hadn't entirely gotten her off the hook; even Father couldn't manipulate the weather to follow his plans, and the frigid ocean wind the day had brought had been deemed Not Good For Baby. So they had left him with Mai so they could go and stand dramatically on deck by themselves, saying it was a good chance for some brother-sister bonding time. While she sprawled lifelessly on the chaise, wondering if she would have any insides left by the time they made land, he bounced and burbled at her from his crib. "Just wait a few years and you won't think it's so great."

Heizin Tom beamed toothlessly at her, drooling. Mai sighed.

"That attitude is only going to set you up for disappointment," she informed him. "This whole move is stupid. Father and Mother can make up whatever they want about politics, but seriously, would Dad take a position this far from the Capital if he had better prospects? He's not being _promoted_. He's salvaging what he can and lying low until the gossip blows over."

Which was undoubtedly true. Three-year-old whispers and jokes had been skittering about, resurrected from the graves where Lord Heizo had tried to bury them by the Avatar's return. Because wherever the Avatar showed up in conversation, he inevitably dragged one certain banished prince with him. One certain banished prince Lord Heizo had tried very, very hard to marry his daughter to.

There was really no point in telling Heizin Tom all of this. There was really no point in thinking about it, either, but trapped in the iron ship, Mai honestly had nothing to do _but _think. And throw up. As much as sitting and thinking had never accomplished much but to make her more irritated, it was at least preferable to puking up her internal organs. Mai knew she was nowhere near as sharp as Azula, but apparently some of the politics had rubbed off on her. It all seemed too obvious and inevitable and depressing when she took the time to mull over it.

Her brother giggled at the cross face she was making at him, squinching up his nose in response. Sighing, Mai dropped her arm over her eyes, unable to decide what was more horrible—standing on unmoving but undomesticated land, or staying on the hateful ship.

The ship seemed like the worse option, until she actually got a good look at the undomesticated land.

"Ugh. This is just gross. Grosser than you, even," she muttered to Heizin as the anchor was dropped. The tilting and rolling of the ship had finally calmed, but her stomach sank dismally as they surveyed the land over the railing. Her purpose in coming topside had been to find someone else on whom to impose her goo-machine of a brother (the baby smell really got to be far too much very quickly in the confined space) but found herself side-tracked by the sheer wretchedness of their new surroundings.

There was no beach to speak of, just wooden walkways and docks. Actually, there was very little actual _land _at all, which struck Mai as stupidly ironic, given that this was supposedly the _Earth _Kingdom. A few shoals and banks of sloppy mud overgrown with sea reeds were all the earth she could see in what was pretty much a wall of overhung, knobble-rooted mangrove trees, slimy with moss and shiny-wet. A low fog hung heavy around the tree roots, roiling at the gentle rocking of the ship, and the air itself felt thick and pressing, buzzing with midges. Despite the seeping cold, it was so humid and stuffy that Mai was starting to sweat, making her feel even damper and colder. The leather of her empty knife sheathes clung clammily to her arms, already disgusting from carrying Heizin. Mai couldn't imagine any place more unlike the sandy, sunny beaches of the Fire Nation islands. Not that she particularly liked those either, but there was considerably less muck and shivering involved.

Heizin squirmed happily, gurgling and waving a slobbery hand at the revolting trees as though to say, "Look, sis, isn't this great?"

"You are the most irritating brother ever," Mai sighed, stalking off in search of their mother.

-o-

The few days' journey through the swamp was just as disgusting, muggy, and bug-ridden as Mai expected. By the time they reached the mountains, she was convinced there could be no variation of geography in the world that was so loathsome (nor any place that combined boredom and agonizing irritation more excruciatingly than her mother's palanquin). Of course, once out of the swamp she quickly learned to feel the same way about the mountain pass leading to Omashu.

"That has to be the ugliest city ever built," Mai grumbled, unable to keep her complaints to herself and her uncomprehending infant brother anymore. It really all was too much.

"Mai, do stop whining," said her mother tiredly.

Gritting her teeth together to keep them from chattering, Mai simply sighed and pulled her mantle more tightly around herself.

Back in the Fire Nation, spring was in full swing. The Earth Kingdom was apparently still catching up, however. There was even snow on the ground in some places. _Snow_! At this time of year! There wasn't much accumulation, but the only reason for that was the never-ceasing, razor-sharp wind that howled through the barren rocks day and night and drove the snow before it in a stinging spray. Mai couldn't even imagine what spring would look like in such a place. Nothing seemed to grow from the rocky wasteland. There was just the dull, yellow-grey city among the dull, yellow-grey rocks under the dull, yellow-grey sky and wind, wind, freezing-cold wind. For once her surroundings seemed to match her mood exactly, which did little to improve it.

As they drew nearer, there at least seemed to be some greenery visible within the city walls, but even closer inspection proved it only to be roofing tiles. Barren, indeed.

In some places there was thick smoke rising from the city, as though to mark the footsteps of war and battle. Mai knew, though, having overheard the reports of the soldiers who had escorted them from the ship, that there had been no battle. Omashu had capitulated without a fight. At that Mai's last hopes that enemy soldiers might attack their caravan and provide at least a little bit of interest to the journey had fizzled and died. Probably, Mai thought sullenly, the smoke was just fires built by Fire Nation soldiers trying not to freeze to death in this spirit-forsaken place.

-o-

More intimate acquaintance with their new residence (she refused to think of this echoing wasteland as _home_) did absolutely nothing to improve Mai's opinion of it. The idiot Earth Kingdom people had built it on a rocky outcropping that didn't really provide much space for expansion, so real estate was a scarce commodity. The tall stone buildings crowded shoulder-to-shoulder, looming over the streets and climbing over each other. Their house (which was really more of a palace—but still, an ugly, provincially decorated palace that Mai hated) had no garden in its strangled courtyard, just a few trees in pots that hadn't yet put out their leaves, and a wide sweeping balcony with a wide sweeping view of the whole miserable city. As if anyone would want to look at all _that_.

Inside was no better. Mai was appalled by the dearth of—well—_Fire Nation-ness_ in the newly established colony. The fruits and spices and peppers so popular in Fire Nation cuisine were a rarity here in the temperate mountains, got only at dear expense by trade. The local food, as a result, was bland, tasteless, and depended far too heavily on plain rice. The furnishings were spartan and blocky and graceless. Almost everything was made of stone or clay, with barely a splinter of wood or dab of white-washed plaster or thread of red silk to cover up all the rocks. It was, Mai thought, hardly a step above living in a cave.

It hadn't occurred to Mai that the colonies would be so very _foreign. _

Lying on her bed feeling sorry for herself (she had tried throwing knives at the walls, but stone just didn't have the same satisfying _thunk _as plaster), she silently cursed her parents for even depriving her of her favorite cherry tree to sulk under. Back at home right now, it would be in full bloom, dropping blossoms that were stupid and girly and pink but familiar.

The single redeeming aspect of Omashu was the fact that the city's surrender had not been as comprehensive or unanimous as had first been reported.

She was alone (basically—the guard five paces behind her hardly counted as company) the first time Main encountered the rebel activity still present in Omashu(-the-ugliest-city-ever). Uncle Zoh would have lectured her ridiculously if he got wind that she wasn't keeping up her training, not that there was much chance for it in this stupid pile of rocks. Especially since Mother was still leery about knives around the baby. Still, she had to stay in _some _kind of shape, and spirits knew she had nothing better to do, so Mai quickly got into the habit of taking a brisk walk around their palace every evening, when the wind died down a little. If nothing else, at least it got her away from her parents and the baby for a little while.

The attack was sudden, poorly coordinated, and over far too soon. An opportunistic ambush, probably, rather than a planned one. Perhaps the Earth Kingdom rabble expected the new Fire Nation governor's daughter would be an easy target, and would bring a fine ransom. Well, so much for expectations. Even with only her wood-shafted practice darts and caught unawares, Mai made short work of the two would-be captors before her "guard" realized what was going on. The pathetic clods had nothing on training with Azula.

Still, after the incident Mai dug out the red-enameled knives from the bottom of one of her clothing chests and started wearing them again. Emotional baggage be charred. Mai wasn't going to let some stupid sentimentality prevent her from going about the city adequately armed and possibly getting some action.

If her parents had had their way, she wouldn't have gone out at all, but the comments Mai muttered mostly under her breath grew so vitriolic the longer she was cooped up inside that they finally gave up. Of course, that didn't mean she could still go walk by herself, oh no. She must have at least four guards attending at all times, and either Lord Heizo or Lady Jien would accompany her.

It was all Mai could do not to point out that she was a lot better off by herself than with extra people to protect, not to mention the 'here we are, attack us!' lanterns her mother insisted on bringing along. But if Uncle Zoh couldn't convince her father that she was more than capable of taking care of herself (_and_ them, since they insisted on tagging along and making targets of them all), there was nothing to be gained in trying to do so herself.

Though when a few days had passed and there was no sign of the resistance (to Mai's disappointment), and Lady Jien decided to bring Heizin along as well, that was just too much.

"_I _can't go out by myself, but it's ok for _snotface_ to be out there? How is _that _safe?" Mai demanded.

"It's sweet that you're worried about Tom-Tom, Mai," Jien said placatingly. "But the guards will keep us safe."

"I'm not _worried about him_," Mai grumbled, wishing her mother would stop calling him by that stupid nickname. "Like I care. I want to go outside to get _away_ from him."

Her mother hmm'ed disbelievingly, and said "If you say so, dear," in that voice that meant she was humoring her foul-tempered daughter. Mai complained nearly for the entire walk just to get back at her for being so patronizing.

That was, until they were revisited by her old friends.

The rumbling of stone above them brought Mai to a halt, but before she could even see the source of the noise in the darkness of the half-constructed wall there was a small explosion of rock dust. She heard her mother gasp as she raised her arm against the billowing cloud, squinting through the dust to find its source.

There! A shadow on the wall above them, looking down!

Mai allowed herself a smile. Finally, some action.

She threw up her arms and let several of her practice darts fly, hoping for a lucky shot despite the terrible visibility. The adrenaline blazing through her drowned out whatever inane things her mother was shouting. Two of the guards scrambled for the ladders left behind by the construction crews, but they were slow, far slower than Mai's fleet feet could carry her. They were better off staying behind to protect her idiot mother and Heizin and leaving the fun part to her. Sure enough, even as she was reaching the top they went over the edge, repelled by the probably feeble force of the resistance fighters. Mai smirked to herself, racing through the night. All hers now.

The enemy was fleeing before her in the dark—but apparently had no qualms about turning to fight. Excellent. Mai flung another volley of darts at her opponent—

Only to have them blocked by a wall of ice, conjured from nowhere.

_Waterbender!_ Mai realized, momentarily stunned, but not slowing. Vaulting over the ice, she continued after her prey. A novel challenge, then, and ten times as interesting. She'd never fought a bender who wasn't a _fire_bender, and had little idea what their capabilities might be.

All the same, she was more than ready to resent them just as much as firebenders. Let this water witch see what she could do against cold steel!

An abandoned scaffold suddenly collapsed in front of her, separating her from the fleeing rebels. Mai gritted her teeth. _You're not getting away that easily!_ In the space of milliseconds as she ran, she saw the figure of a young man through the falling rubble and threw one of Zuko's knives after him.

Remarkably, the mark stuck in the strange staff he was wielding. What rotten—aggravated, Mai threw another broadside of practice darts after the stunned-looking fighters. There was no way she'd let them go now, now that they had one of her red knives—

And then the earth swallowed them up.

Well, that was hardly fair.

Mai sighed as the buzz of adrenaline quickly dissipated. No prisoners, lost her knife, and the chase was over. Nothing for it to go back and listen to her mother whine about how she'd run off and put herself in 'danger'.

Yippee skippy.

-o-

_What was a waterbender doing in an Earth Kingdom (excuse for a) city, anyway?_ Mai later wondered, gazing drowsily at the shadow-filled canopy of her bed.

Meh, wasn't worth thinking about. As long as they showed up to make her day interesting, Mai was willing to take it at face value. Spirits knew she needed _something_ to distract her from all of this thinking, which she was sure couldn't be healthy. With any luck they'd meet again soon. Curling up on her side, she easily fell asleep.

-o-

"What's all this?" Mai asked the next morning, upon entering the family sitting room. Apparently she was still asleep, and dreaming. "…Are those fire flakes?"

Over the past couple of weeks, Lady Jien had done her best to cover give their so-called palace as much of a Fire Nation makeover as was plausible. It still didn't feel like home, but at least the place had some real color now, with thick red rugs covering the cold stone floors and decorative screens relieving some of the bland blankness of the cold stone walls. And now, here on the sitting room breakfast table, bowls of fruit, and the dried and candied red chili flakes Mai had spotted.

"A shipment came in from the Fire Nation just this morning," Jien said, clearly a little smug at having elicited some kind of non-negative reaction from her daughter (even in that droning tone of voice). She smiled down at Heizin, whom she was rocking in her lap. "Look at that, Tom-Tom, even your grouchy sister has nothing bad to say about that."

If Mai were given to such things, she would have skipped with joy. She wasn't, though, so instead she had a fire flake. The sugary, tongue-scorching spiciness nearly brought tears to her eyes. Ahhh. Oh, how she hated Earth Kingdom food…. "Remind me again why Father dragged us out here?"

"That's the nature of politics, Mai," Heizo said tiredly, coming in after her. "…Are those fire flakes?"

"You'll have to fight Mai for them," Lady Jien said lightly.

"Hmm. So I hear," her father said, frowning.

Oh, brother. Here it came. Again. Mai sighed.

Sure enough, he continued, "She seems to be doing a lot of that lately."

When Mai didn't bother to reply, he pressed on, "I specifically told you not to engage with the rebel forces again, young lady."

Had he? Mai probably hadn't been listening at the time. Or she'd promptly forgotten, a lapse she didn't regret in the slightest. "…Oops," she said without trying to make it sound convincing.

Besides, what did he expect her to have done? Sit back and let the _guards_ handle it? Yeah right.

He was still talking, rambling on about danger and disobedience and her bad attitude, etc. Mai tuned him out, diverting her attention to the much more interesting problem of whether she wanted a pomegranate (they looked like they weren't quite perfectly ripe, but still, it was an astronomic change from rice every day) or if she really just wanted to eat as many fire flakes as was physically possible without making herself ill.

"—too much time with the Princess, clearly she's had a bad influence on you, I should never have allowed it—"

"What?" Mai said distractedly. Too much time with Princess Azula? If memory served her right, that had been her parents' idea, not hers. Pointing that out would actually involve her in this conversation, however, and she'd rather avoid that.

"Are you even listening?" her father demanded.

"No."

"I have enough problems trying to keep this city in order without having to deal with your—"

Mai tuned out again, helping herself to another delicious fire flake.

The distant clanging of the gate's gong rescued her from having to ignore the rest of the lecture, which he had apparently been saving up for quite a while. Irritated at the interruption, the governor of Omashu hurried out to the balcony to see what was going wrong now in his misbegotten city. Hoping for a spectacle, Mai trailed after (bringing the entire bowl of fire flakes with her).

As far as spectacles went, it wasn't a very exciting one. A crowd of Earth Kingdom people—what looked to be most of the population of Omashu—were lurching through the streets below, headed for the main gate. Mai watched them quizzically as her father and the guard blathered on about 'pentapox'.

She'd never heard of pentapox, but then, this city made _her_ sick and she'd only been here a few weeks. It probably wasn't so surprising that the native population was plague-ridden.

Though it was a little suspicious that so many were all sick at once, suddenly, when there was no word of any illness in the ranks of the Fire Nation occupying forces. Not that Mai would hear about it or be interested, but Father ought to know. Wasn't that among the list of lots of other things he was supposed to keep track of, in addition to Mai's supposed delinquency?

_Politics. Must be rough_, Mai thought a little vindictively, and offered him some fire flakes.

-o-

She was still thinking of it several hours later, lounging on the balcony and flipping a knife over and over with one hand. (Stuck thinking again. She'd rather have gone for a walk, but with the threat of the sickness hanging over the streets now, her father wouldn't even consider allowing her out of their compound.) Given the sheer number of people driven out, chances were a good cut of them had been resistance fighters. That many fewer now to get into scrapes with. Tilting the dagger in her hands so that the red enamel glowed in the angry light of the setting sun, Mai wondered if the waterbender had been among the plague victims. She rather hoped not.

Having nowhere else to go, her mind wandered over the question again of what a waterbender was doing in Omashu in the first place. She hadn't thought there _were_ many waterbenders anymore, outside of the North Pole. Father had claimed during their journey that there were some living in the swamp, but Mai had figured he was just saying that as an excuse to keep her shut in the palanquin with her mother. (If nothing else, the notion that anyone would want to live in that wretched place seemed ludicrous.)

Waterbenders and mystery plagues. Once the idea occurred to her, Mai couldn't shake the niggling feeling that something odd was going on. Perhaps it was just that she wanted there to be, because she was so terribly bored. She wished Azula were around, so that _she _could pick up on oddities and come to some coherent, actionable conclusions. Trying to think like the princess felt to Mai like chasing shadows.

Literal shadow-chasing was all well and good, but this metaphorical kind just made her head hurt.

"Mai, have you seen Tom-Tom?" Her mother's voice was even more anxious now than it had been two hours ago, the last time she'd come out to the balcony to ask that exact question. Mai glanced up at her sideways, balancing the knife between her fingertips.

"…You're still looking for him?"

-o-

Every nook and cranny of the palace was scoured, the city practically ransacked and an entire platoon of scouts sent _out _of the city to find him.

Meanwhile, Mai had the pointless task of trying to comfort her mother.

"What if he's been abducted?" Jien cried, flinging herself down on the chaise and throwing an arm over her eyes.

"By whom? The rebels? They just happened to scoop him up while they were dying of plague?" Mai said skeptically. She wondered, briefly, if her mother would react this way if _she _were the one who had gone missing. (She sort of doubted it.)

Mai wasn't about to say so to her mother, but she thought it far more likely that Heizin had fallen out a window or off a balcony. Much as she disliked the little snotball, the notion didn't really bear thinking about, and she'd exiled it for now to the same shut closet in her head where she'd shoved Zuko's banishment and Ty Lee's running away.

Her reasoning didn't make her mother feel any better, though, so Mai gave up her half-hearted attempts. And as it turned out, it seemed he really _had_ been abducted.

Jien sobbed, Heizo fumed, and Mai listened critically as the scouts gave their report. The child had indeed been spotted, held captive by the Earth Kingdom people camped a few miles out from Omashu. It had been determined that an extraction mission would be too dangerous, because the rebels might kill the infant before they were able to rescue him.

"So they're not dead of plague?" she asked, caught by this detail, which had been rather glossed over in the report.

"Mai, be silent," Heizo snapped.

Mai complied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as her mother proceeded to fall apart and her father ranted on about the diabolical cleverness of their enemies and commanded that an exchange be proposed—the previous king of Omashu for Heizin Tom. As if the rebels had anything to gain in killing a useless, drooling baby. She was no Azula, but the princess had rubbed off on her enough to know _that_ much. Ransom was the obvious goal, the only possible goal. There was no doubt in Mai's mind that Heizin was perfectly safe and they'd get him back eventually, but Father was probably giving the enemy far more than he needed to, not even negotiating.

Oh well, not her problem.

Though, she thought later, sitting in her bedroom window and staring out at the dark mountains, maybe it was. Last time Lord Heizo had had political problems, they'd ended up _here._ Regardless of kidnapped babies and fake plagues, there'd be some explaining to do once word of the exodus of the entire population of Omashu and the ransom of the king got back to the Capital. Neither Fire Lord Ozai nor his crown heir was one to let things slide. Mai wondered where could be worse than Omashu, that Heizo might get sent to next for a failure of this magnitude. It was almost enough to make her slip out her window and attempt an 'extraction mission' herself.

She stayed up so late considering it that she ended up falling asleep in the window.

The clanging of the front gate gong woke her suddenly. Startling slightly, Mai looked down at the hateful (and now depopulated) city, half expecting a rebel invasion—and saw the caravan moving over the main causeway, approaching the city gates. Red pennants hung from the front-rider's spears, and even from this distance Mai could see the gold gleaming on the palanquin in the middle of it all.

Well, well, well. Things were about to get interesting.


	9. Call to Arms

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Between finals projects and some writer's block about halfway through this chapter, I sort of let it drop for a little while...but don't worry, I'm still plugging away at this thing. Onward!**

**Call to Arms.**

_Finally_, was all Mai could think as she waited on the Palace steps to greet the royal processional.

Her parents had decided it would be more politic for her to welcome the princess herself, since they were friends. Mai interpreted that to mean Governor Heizo knew he'd be raked over the coals and was hoping his daughter could soften the blow, or at least sound out the Princess's intentions in coming to Omashu before he had to face the Fire Lord's daughter. Presumably she had less to fear from Azula's wrath; surely she would stay her hand for a friend's sake.

Pathetic.

Not that Mai was concerned. Oh, yes, Azula would be angry. But it wasn't Mai's fault, and therefore not her problem.

Trouble or not, Mai was beyond glad to see Azula's palanquin marching up through the city. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment that part of why she hated Omashu so much was simply because she was lonely, but there it was. None of the other Fire Nation families who had come to the nascent colony were of appropriately high status _and_ had children Mai's age. Azula could have come in and burned down half the city in a rage and Mai would still probably be delighted to see her.

Actually, it would probably endear her to Mai that much more. Seeing Omashu in flames would have been spectacularly satisfying.

And then she nearly did a double-take when she saw who was riding the eelhound cantering alongside the royal palanquin: Ty Lee.

_What's this all about?_ Mai wondered, burning with curiosity as the pair dismounted and approached. Had Ty Lee gotten tired of the circus after all? And why would Azula bring her along to simply make an inspection? Surely they couldn't know about the fake plague and Heizin's abduction already. Had they—had they possibly come for _her_?

On fire with hope, Mai bowed to the Fire Lord's crown heir. "Please tell me you're here to kill me," she droned, glancing up through her fringe. To her glee, Azula smirked at her—a smirk she knew well. A smirk that said, _Let's go get ourselves in trouble._

Mai actually laughed out loud for the first time in months, clasping her friend's arms. "It's great to see you, Mai," Azula said, laughing too. Then suddenly the breath was knocked out of her, as Ty Lee grabbed her in an unnecessarily energetic hug.

Right. Mai had forgotten about that. She winced a little.

"I thought you ran off and joined the circus…. You said it was your calling," she said, still a little bewildered to see Ty Lee here of all places.

Ty Lee pulled away, smiling. "Well, Azula called a little louder," she said brightly. Her grin was broad as ever, but there was something slightly fixed about it—which disappeared so quickly Mai wasn't sure if she'd imagined it. Before she could even think of a tactful way to pursue it, Azula was addressing them both, clasping their shoulders.

"I have a mission, and I need you both," she said, still with that trouble smirk. Mai's heart leapt. What mission could there possibly be in this forsaken rock pile? Which surely meant they were going away, away from this horrible city of exile!

"Count me in! Anything to get me out of this place," Mai said immediately, then hesitated, an idea suddenly taking vague, nebulous form in her head. Hadn't she been wishing just the night before that she had Azula's sharp, strategic mind to bend to this situation with her brother?

Why, the three of them together could probably easily extract him. Together, they were practically unstoppable.

"But there is a…situation here," Mai said.

Azula's brows arched. "Oh?" she said with dangerous lightness. "What kind of situation?"

-o-

As Mai expected, the princess did not take the news well.

"He did _what?" _Azula demanded, in full outraged-war-commander mode.

"Kicked most of the Earth Kingdom population out of the city and then offered them their wacko king back for pukeface," Mai repeated boredly, taking the rhetorical question literally.

"I think that was rhetorical, Mai," Ty Lee whispered helpfully. Mai rolled her eyes.

"He doesn't have that authority!" Azula raged. Her eyes flashed alarmingly. "Have whatever audience hall you have in this barbaric place prepared immediately and summon your parents. We have to deal with this before we leave. Mai, you'll negotiate the hostage situation."

"—What?" Mai looked up from her nails, surprised. She'd been raised living and breathing politics, but she'd never taken active part in it. Politics was something to be ignored over dinner, not to be engaged head-on. Why on earth should she do it when Azula was here to handle the issue? Besides, she was definitely more of a throwing-sharp-objects sort of person than a negotiator.

"Oh, don't give me that look, Mai. You know more about politics than half of my father's Domestic Ministry put together, and I know you're not as stupid as you act," the princess brushed off her unspoken protest irritably as she swerved out of her pacing track to head for the door. "Come along, girls, let's get this out of the way."

It was indescribably satisfying getting to witness her angry friend chew out her parents. Mai smirked at the floor while her father waffled and groveled, reveling in their undisguised shock when Azula declared she was turning the situation over to their daughter. They couldn't just tell her to sit down and shut up now, could they? Served them right for dragging her out here in the first place, and probably went a little ways toward payback for all the nobles' sons too.

Though privately she thought that renaming the city 'New Ozai' was going overboard a little. Lord Heizo hardly needed reminding of on whose behalf Azula spoke, and Mai couldn't imagine wanting _her_ name attached to a lousy city like Omashu—or, New Ozai, rather.

Oh well, not her problem. Not her city, anymore. Mai couldn't help but grin. As soon as they rescued Heizin she'd be out of here like smoke on the wind.

Things were going to get _exciting_.

-o-

While Azula was talking to the general to get all the details of the exchange that Lord Heizo and the rebels had agreed upon, Mai took the opportunity to pull Ty Lee aside.

"What happened with the circus? Did you go back to the Capital after all?" she asked, suspiciously noting how quickly her friend's smile turned fixed again at the question.

"Heh, no," Ty Lee laughed a bit nervously. "Actually, Princess Azula came and found me to ask me to help with her mission, just like you. She's so clever and good at tracking people, isn't she?"

"Yeah," Mai agreed, frowning slightly. The other girl's smile didn't slip, however, so instead she asked, "So what is this mission anyway?"

The broad grin broadened in excitement, something Mai would have thought physically impossible on anyone else's face. "The Fire Lord sent her to capture General Iroh," Ty Lee told her conspiratorially.

Mai blinked in confusion. "Her uncle? But why?" Hadn't he been off with…with the banished prince, sailing harmlessly around? Had something happened with the Avatar?

"Haven't you _heard_?"

"We don't hear about _anything_ out here," Mai grumbled, a little irritated with the way Ty Lee was practically squirming with excitement over whatever juicy bit of gossip she had. Much as she'd missed her, Mai had forgotten how exhaustingly enthusiastic the other girl could be.

"The army cornered the Avatar at the North Pole and there was a huge battle," Ty Lee informed her, scooping her arms out animatedly to indicate the hugeness of said battle. "And General Iroh betrayed them to let the Avatar escape! He's been declared a traitor to the Fire Nation."

The way she said it, it might have been a particularly clever joke.

"I see," Mai said.

Truth be told, she didn't much care about the Avatar or the North Pole or General Iroh (and actually, a manhunt sounded thrilling), but despite her effort to stamp the thought down she couldn't help but wonder if the traitor was still with….

"We think he and Prince Zuko are still traveling together," Ty Lee added coyly, and for an unnerving moment Mai wondered if she had been able to read her thoughts through her face, as through glass.

"Mai!" Azula snapped suddenly, looking around as though she'd just realized the other girl wasn't at her side. "Get over here, you should be hearing all of this too if you're going to handle this exchange."

"Coming, Princess."

-o-

The location her father had chosen for the exchange was a kind of tacky one, in Mai's opinion, up on the scaffolding of the ostentatiously large statue of Ozai that was under construction as part of the civilization of Omashu. New Ozai, she corrected herself, rolling her eyes a little. Of course it had been chosen because it was so inaccessible as to be almost impossible for either side to set up an ambush, but in clear view of the entire city. Not to mention the great crane being used in the construction project could be used to easily move the heavy metal coffin that the earthbender king had been stashed away in.

Tacky or not, this was great, really great. Mai had never felt powerful before, but standing up here with the entire city at her feet, her friends at her back, and the weight of her best knives riding comfortably on her arms and legs, she felt like she could do just about anything. It was intoxicating, and she wondered if this was how Azula felt _all _the time. Small wonder the princess was so intimidating.

It certainly seemed unnatural to be leading the way with Azula behind her, though.

Three of the resistance fighters mirrored Mai and her friends on the opposite side of the platform. One of them, she saw with little surprise, was her waterbending friend from the ambush the other night. Now that she had an opportunity to examine them in broad daylight, none of them seemed to be dressed in typical Earth Kingdom garb—and if Mai knew about anything (besides blades) it was clothing. She'd never seen anything like the bizarre little breeches and tiny cape-poncho thing the short guy in yellow was wearing.

Thank the spirits Azula was here now to figure out all this weirdness.

And, most importantly, the guy with the ridiculous ponytail was carrying the snot machine. He _looked_ ok from here, as far as Mai could tell, but if so much as one hair of his topknot was out of place when she got him back….

The crazy king was cranked down behind them, shouting half-coherently (why, precisely, anyone would want him back, Mai was not sure) while the two little groups stood in a tense standoff. It was a bit awkward. Nobody was saying anything. Mai wondered how on earth their enemies planned on getting the cinder-brained 'king' down the scaffold in his big metal box without dropping him and/or falling to their deaths. And why wouldn't Azula or one of the strange rebels hurry up and get this thing started?

Oh, right. _She_ was supposed to be in charge. Mai suddenly wished she had paid a little more attention when Azula had been interrogating the general on the details of the trade instead of wandering off to talk to Ty Lee.

"You brought my brother?" she demanded, even though it was patently obvious.

"He's here. We're ready to trade," Shorty replied. He sounded a lot younger than Mai expected—his voice hadn't even broken yet. She frowned. Were the rebels even taking them seriously?

Just as she was about to order them to bring him to her, Azula spoke up behind her. "I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?"

"Of course not, Princess Azula," Mai said neutrally, turning to her friend. There was that look on her face, that too-innocent, too-thoughtful look, and it snapped into place in Mai's mind: this was a setup. Azula was most definitely, 100 percent in charge of what she had decided was going to take place—whatever that was.

"We're trading a two-year-old for a king," Azula pointed out. "A powerful, earthbending king?"

_He's not even two yet, _Mai thought, cold despite the bright sun and her leather knife sheathes, _and really, the other's not much of a king. _

"It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?"

It was clear was Azula was ordering her to do. She was to call off the trade. Mai's eyes slid sideways, to her brother, held by the strange resistance fighter. Then what? They would retrieve him by force and keep the king prisoner, Mai assumed. Attempt to take the resistance fighters hostage. Well, at least she'd finally find out what a waterbender was doing in Omashu. Though picking a fight while Pukeface was still in the hands of the enemy would most definitely not have been _her_ first choice….

As if she had a choice. All Mai could really do was trust that the princess knew what she was doing.

"You're right," she said. Just as she was meant to. Turning back to the odd trio that held her brother hostage, Mai called out, "The deal's off!" Raising an arm, she signaled the lift to take the insane king away.

That was about the point all hell broke loose.

Shorty shouted out, dashing toward them. There was a roar of blue-white flame as Azula ran to meet the enemy head-on, but instead of burning to a crisp he leapt into the air. And kept leaping, higher and higher.

"The Avatar!" cried Azula, and went flying off after him.

No time to think about that, though—the princess was more than capable of taking care of herself, and meanwhile, the waterbender and Ponytail were running off with _her _snot-faced brother.

"Come on!" she tossed to Ty Lee, racing after them and dropping a cluster of knives to one hand. No way were they getting away with Heizin Tom.

Ty Lee must have dropped to the scaffold level below; Ponytail went sprawling, and she sprang up from a hole in the floor where he'd fallen. Waterbender raised a whiplike coil of water to attack Ty Lee from behind, to stop her from stopping the man trying to escape with Mai's brother. Mai wasn't about to let that happen. She sent her blades flying, drawing the waterbender's attention back to her, and the other girl responded by flinging up several ground planks to stop the daggers.

This was fun, finally doing something challenging, skin buzzing with adrenaline. She _liked_ playing with this mysterious waterbender, with all her surprises. Waterbending was a bit lame compared to firebending, but still, perhaps this was a sort of bender she could tolerate.

Then the knife-studded planks came shooting back at her, and Mai found she liked her considerably less.

Mai threw herself out of the way, barely avoiding getting flattened. By the time she rolled back to her feet, Ponytail and her brother were nowhere in sight, and the waterbender had Ty Lee by the ankle with a rope of water. Mai grit her teeth in silent fury. Launching herself at the enemy, she was knocked back almost immediately with a whip of water (which felt _pretty damn solid_ for something made of water). There was no way she'd be able to keep her pinned long enough to go after her brother.

Ok, game time was over.

"Ty Lee!" she yelled in desperation, rolling quickly to her feet again. "He's got Heizin!"

"I'm on it!" Ty Lee shouted back cheerfully, vaulting over the edge of the scaffold.

Now it was just her and the waterbender. Dropping a knife to each hand, Mai circled with the other girl for a moment as they sized each other up. Now she could see that, like Shorty, Waterbender was younger than Mai had initially assumed, perhaps a little younger than herself. She feinted, sounding her opponent out, but the waterbender didn't lash out, stepping aside smoothly. Apparently other benders had much different fighting styles than firebenders, Mai thought, and made a mental note to keep that in mind when training.

With an almost perceptible flick of her wrist she aimed for real, immediately pivoting and sending the second knife from her other hand then rearming in one smooth movement. Her enemy dodged, replying with another snapping whip of water. This time instead of throwing herself out of the path of the attack, Mai leaned back, flowing with it and kicking out one of her ankle darts.

It stuck with a loud _CHINK _in the wall of ice that materialized between them. While the waterbender was still distracted, Mai charged her again, determined to pin her this time. She moved to throw her knife, registering the water whip zipping toward her but not dodging enough to correct for it before it was unexpectedly slithering up her arm like a cold snake and freezing into rock-hard ice.

Mai gasped. She was plenty used to cold. Even on the warmest days, she preferred long sleeves and her leathers, and Mai was always the first to go for her mantle when the weather started to cool. But this was awful, the frigid cold immediately sinking right down to her bones, burning against her bare fingers so it felt like fire instead of ice. Attempting to break it with her other hand did nothing but to hurt her hand.

Fighting was fun, but losing sure sucked.

Mai glared back at her glaring captor, just in time to see salvation arrive.

With a few swift jabs Ty Lee disarmed the bender, skipping over to join Mai as the ice trap splashed to the planks, water once again. Mai shook out her freezing soaked sleeve, almost laughing out loud as the waterbender resumed a fighting stance. She didn't even know she was beaten yet. The moment of realization was delicious, as their opponent attempted to raise the water from the planks and failed miserably.

Mai didn't think she'd ever get tired of seeing that particular look of sick horror on any kind of bender's face.

"How are you gonna fight without your bending?" she taunted, drawing one of her favorite stars (one of the red-enameled ones) out of her robe. Not so tough when they could only rely on their own speed and strength like everyone else, were they?

But as she raised her arm to throw the knife and finally pin this mystery down, there was a loud _wmph!_ from behind them, and with a jarring _clang_ the blade was ripped out of her hand.

"I seem to manage!" yelled Ponytail, who had somehow returned riding some monstrous, hairy _thing._ It crashed to a landing right in front of them, its colossal tail smashing down on the planks and sending both Mai and Ty Lee flying.

Mai landed painfully on her back, curling up just in time to catch a chunk of wood on the leather-armored arm instead of in the face.

"Um…ow," Ty Lee groaned. Slightly dazed, Mai sat up. Nothing felt broken, but she'd definitely have a few bruises to show for the encounter. Plus the Avatar's companions and their giant fluff-monster were gone. With Pukeface. Great.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, just a bit scraped," Ty Lee said, getting to her feet much more stiffly than usual.

"I think we just lost. What was that _thing_?"

"No idea. I'm really sorry, Mai," her friend said, face crumpling a little. "I tried to catch up, but that guy got away with Tom-Tom."

"Don't call him that," Mai snapped, then her anger drained away as fast as it had flared up. She wasn't going to think about that right now. Azula had probably captured the Avatar by now, and though she might be irritated with Mai and Ty Lee for not snagging his companions or Heizin—the _hostage_, Mai corrected herself—they could use the Avatar as a lure to bring them back, or even just carry out an extraction mission like she had originally envisioned. The princess would figure something out. "Come on," she said calmly, getting to her feet. "We should find Azula."

-o-

When they found her, sans the Avatar, Azula was steaming like a whole train of tanks.

"We must leave immediately. We'll take eelhounds and one of the Centipede-class tanks. We'll also need a driver and a man to look after the animals, no more than that, and supplies for ten days. Have them meet us at the front gate in ten minutes," Azula told her captain brusquely, Mai and Ty Lee hurrying after her. "The rest of the convoy will remain here in New Ozai until I send further orders."

Mai and Ty Lee exchanged a glance.

Before Mai could even open her mouth, Azula turned on the pair.

"The Avatar is an icon of peace," she stated with a sneer that summarized exactly what she thought of _that_. "He won't allow your pathetic resistance fighters to harm an innocent child. Your father should be able to deal with any negotiations for the hostage's return, Mai, after I have a chat with him over what he does and _doesn't _have the authority to bargain with. Go pack whatever you need for the trip—clothes, weapons. Ty Lee, go with her and make sure she packs light."

"I'm sure they'll get your brother back," Ty Lee reassured her as Mai deftly packed her sharpening rods and whetstones.

"I know that," Mai said, rolling up the entire kit in its leather case.

So what if she had failed. Really, she was never actually in charge of anything. It was Azula's plan that fell through, and now the responsibility for retrieving Pukeface fell to someone else. Never had been her problem, still wasn't. Nobody really expected her to do anything about it anyway.

Mai didn't want to think about it. Right now, she just wanted to get _away_.

And within ten minutes, she got her wish. It occurred to Mai briefly as she raised a silent hand in farewell to her parents, clinging to each other like they would fall over without the support, that they were losing both of their kids now.

Instead of thinking about that, she fixed her mind on the mission ahead.

"So, we're tracking your brother and uncle, huh?" Mai asked as she and Ty Lee walked alongside Azula's palanquin, on their way to meet the tank at the gate.

"It'll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won't it, Mai?" Ty Lee asked coyly.

Mai smirked to herself. Irritating as she had found it in the past, she appreciated her friend's attempt to distract her from the recent fiasco from her brother. And Zuko—well, whatever. She was looking forward to the manhunt, that was all. They had been friends, but that was years ago. He was probably a completely different person now. Who they were tracking didn't matter anyway—General Iroh, Zuko, the Avatar, whatever.

At least she had something to do.


	10. Traceless

**This keeps happening to me...this was supposed to be the first half of a chapter, but it got so darn long I ended up cutting it off. At this rate the story is going to be fifty billion ch's long X_X blargh. Ok, less griping more story!**

* * *

**Traceless.**

It was the iron ship all over again, except with much less space and despair and seasickness, and a lot more rattling around like glass beads in a kaleidoscope. It took about fifteen seconds after starting for Mai to decide she hated the tank.

"This thing sure is loud!" Ty Lee shouted cheerfully from the front seat. The instant she'd glimpsed the tank driver, Lieutenant Tazh, she had volunteered to sit up front, letting the princess and Mai take the slightly (_very _slightly) larger benches in the back. The two had been jabbering away nonstop for the entire trip so far, which couldn't have been more than five minutes but felt like five hours. Mai had mentally nicknamed the driver Blabbermouth already, and the eelhound handler she had christened Blockhead for similarly obvious reasons. At least _he_ was riding out the journey back in the second cargo trailer with his smelly charges, rather than taking up even more of the rather scant room in the tank with his smelly bulk.

"Yup!" Blabbermouth yelled back over the roar of the engines. "This is a Centipede Class tanker, series 650! She may be loud, but she can outrun any eelhound and can go at full speed for twelve hours without stopping!"

"Wow, that's amazing!" Ty Lee smiled prettily at him, making the man grin back at her with one eyebrow cocked.

"I know. They can be a bit rough to handle, but I'm one of the best drivers in the Army."

Mai rolled her eyes. Blabbermouth reminded her of one of the young men her father had tried to match her with, a cocky teen whose nasal voice had irritated her and whose name she'd forgotten. What Ty Lee seemed to see in him, she wasn't sure.

"Yeah, you ladies are in good hands. The traitors don't stand a chance outrunning us in this."

"Silence, Lieutenant!" snapped Azula. The princess was in scheming mode, a rolled-up almanac of the area around Omashu crammed into the small space left over on the metal bench beside her and all of the last month's military reports from the entire region heaped in her lap. "Mai, hold up this map so I can see it."

"Yes, Princess Azula," Mai sighed, taking the corners of the creased parchment as indicated. How Azula planned to read the thing in the dim reddish light, Mai had no idea. Would it have killed them to put a window in this clunker a little bigger than the narrow viewing slit?

"You can tell me more about the tank thingy later," Ty Lee told Blabbermouth in the closest thing to a coy whisper that could be audibly managed in the cacophony of clanking and rattling and growling.

"Our first priority is the Avatar," Azula said, somehow able to cut through the noise without noticeably raising her voice. "The traitors can wait—they have nowhere to hide for long, not with the price on their heads. The Avatar, on the other hand, has allies who will give him safe harbor. It will be best to catch him in transit, rather than letting him get as far as Ba Sing Se or one of the other more fortified Earth Kingdom cities and having to dig him out.

"Obviously the flying bison gives him an edge. They won't be leaving tracks that we can follow. But they can't possibly carry supplies for more than a few days in addition to all their weight. They'll have to stop, often, for food and whatever else they need.

"That's how we're going to track them. We'll go undercover in the towns and villages, follow the gossip." Azula frowned to herself a little, squinting closer at the map. "After all, they're hardly inconspicuous. They seem to kick up a storm wherever they go. And if he's not bothering to disguise his identity among the locals, we may hear the news without even having to ask. It's a wonder even Dum-Dum couldn't catch him, he's probably so easy to follow."

"Undercover? Does that mean we get to play dress-up?" Ty Lee asked, looping her arm over the back of her seat and trying to peer at the map. Mai sighed silently to herself. Dress-up?

"There is Earth Kingdom clothing in the cargo trailer that I had the soldiers confiscate in New Ozai," Azula confirmed absently, eyes narrowing as she reached up to tap some spot Mai couldn't see on the parchment. "We'll start here, at Ling Do village," she decided, making a sour face at the taste of the Earth Kingdom name in her mouth. "It's the largest settlement in the area."

-o-

The one positive thing Mai could say for the Earth Kingdom peasant clothing was that it was warmer than it looked, which was a good thing when camping. (_Camping_. Ugh!) Giving voice to the positive wasn't really her thing, though, so she didn't say it.

"I don't see how anyone can run in skirts like this," Mai muttered around the comb clamped in her teeth, reaching out to wet her free hand in the pail Blockhead was holding up for her. Shaking the excess water off her fingers, she coiled part of her hair into a second knot and started pinning it in place.

"We shouldn't be doing any running. We're undercover. We're just listening and asking questions," Azula snarled. "When's that tea going to be ready!" she barked at Blabbermouth, who was cowering by the campfire cooking 'breakfast'.

Neither of the two girls was in a particularly good mood. Mai had barely slept the night before, kept awake by the unyielding lumpy hardness of the ground through the thin sleeping mat and the rippling, warping sounds of the night breeze against the tent—not to mention the cold and the breathing of the other occupants of the tent and the rustling and squeaking and creaking of the wildlife beyond the thin fabric walls. When Azula had been traveling with her full convoy, she'd told Mai, she'd never had to put up with such crude conditions; though she was willing (grudgingly) to make the sacrifice for the sake of the mission, which was much more important than down mattresses. Mai didn't have quite the same enthusiasm. She could barely wrap her head around the fact that she'd just dressed in a dark cargo trailer, without a mirror, and was now trying to do her hair while sitting on a rock under the cloudy sky.

It was _barbaric_.

While he and Blockhead had been setting up the campsite the previous evening, Blabbermouth had had the audacity to suggest it was a pretty luxurious setup, compared to army camps. Too much flirting with Ty Lee had apparently damaged his sense of what liberties were and were not tolerable around royalty. Azula had not appreciated the comment any more than Mai had, and now he knew better than to share his unwanted, uneducated opinion.

"Isn't this wonderful? The sound of birds woke me up this morning. I love traveling! This is just like camping with the BrightTop troop! I feel so in balance with nature!" Ty Lee was twirling and cavorting the camp as though she still had to rehearse for a circus performance. "Tazh, that tea smells fantastic!"

Mai sighed disgustedly.

"Alright, listen up," Azula said, visibly more collected once she had a cup of hot tea in her hand. They'd all gathered around the campfire, expectantly waiting to hear the plan of attack. "You men will stay here. Pack up the camp and get everything ready to go. I want you to be prepared to move out at a moment's notice. Girls, we're going into…'town'. If anyone asks, we're cousins taking a pleasure trip from Ban Pheng to Gaoling to visit our Uncle Lee for a few months. Our parents run a weapons shop and forge together. Our uncle is a merchant. We're stopping in town because Uncle Lee likes some kind of peasant craft made in the area—I'll tip you off when we get a look at what's available in the market." Azula's lip curled slightly. "Got it?"

"Cousins, Ban Pheng, weapons shop, visiting Uncle Lee in Gaoling," Mai repeated back boredly.

"Got it!" chirped Ty Lee.

"Good. Everybody get to it, then!"

-o-

Mai had never done this before.

Not gone on a manhunt, of course, and not camping, but even this—walking through a public market, unaccompanied by at least one guard. Her parents would never have allowed it. Canvas-covered stands piled high with produce and hand-made crafts crowded together between the shopfronts, the occasional cart and emu-horse clattering by on the rough dirt road. Dust rose from the ground, kicked up by the light foot traffic, the musty smell mingling with the scents of dung and frying oil and roasting meat. People in coarse clothing haggled and loafed and talked and laughed in small clusters, sometimes jostling right up against the three girls. A woman with braided hair passed them, a child about Heizin's age balanced on her hip. Pursing her lips, Mai looked impassively the other way.

Ty Lee was obviously loving it, bouncing along with her arm linked in Mai's and fluttering her lashes at every male who looked their way (the first time, Mai had thought she'd gotten dust in her eye or something). The whole place seemed like a filthy mess to Mai, though. She fought down her revulsion by glowering coldly at the men who leered back at them in the wake left by Ty Lee's flirty smiles.

They all lost interest very quickly.

Azula, however, was a woman on a mission. Forging on ahead of them and brazenly unaware of the men looking Ty Lee's way, she examined the stands on either side of the street, scoping them out and occasionally throwing out the occasional comment ("Look, girls, what charming…whatever those are") in an apparent attempt to sound natural.

"Isn't this exciting, Mai?"

"Thrilling," Mai said flatly.

Ty Lee just giggled at her lackluster response. "I love markets. Sometimes at BrightTop we did teaser shows for market squares like this in between big performances. Oh, it was so much fun…."

Glancing sidelong at her friend through her fringe, Mai caught her looking wistfully at the low wooden platform on the other side of the small village square. Before she could open her mouth to reply, though, Ty Lee let out an ear-splitting squeal and gripped her arm so hard she nearly yanked it out of its socket.

"Look! They have fried ginger dumplings! Oh, we have to get some—"

Azula pivoted to look in the direction Ty Lee was pointing. "Good idea, Ty Lee. We must engage with the natives. Come on."

The vendor claimed they were extra-hot spicy dumplings. Mai thought they earned the name 'street' food: they did, indeed, taste like they had been scraped up out of the dust of the street. Earth Kingdom food. Sigh. She nibbled reluctantly at the bland dough, keeping an eye on the people flowing by while Azula and Ty Lee chatted with the vendor. It was rather remarkable, that the princess of the Fire Nation herself and her two closest companions could simply walk around and eat street food in enemy territory, with no other disguise than some green robes. No wonder the Fire Nation kept conquering the other peoples.

In the end, their little field trip proved useless.

"They never came through here," Azula stated as the three of them got out of sight of the village.

"Ok!" said Ty Lee. "Where to next?"

"How can you be sure?" Mai asked, frowning slightly. "Maybe they're undercover after all. Nobody noticed _us_."

"The Avatar's not trying to hide," Azula said dismissively. "And the entire world knows he's back and traveling through the Earth Kingdom. Rumors have traveled everywhere he hasn't. He's an icon. They're excitable peasants. If anyone looking even remotely like him or his companions had come through this village, the entire place would be buzzing like a stirred antwasp nest."

"Mm."

"Alright, back in the tank, ladies. Let's get on to the next flea-ridden village."

-o-

The next stop yielded no more information about the Avatar's whereabouts, nor the next, nor the next. In one town they get a false alarm; the market was boiling over with gossip, claiming the Avatar had been seen in town that very day. Just as Azula predicted might happen, though, it turned out to merely be a short bald Earth Kingdom man (who was quite crabby about his unwanted moment of fame).

One night, lying awake in the wind-buffeted tent, it occurred to Mai randomly that somehow they had ended up with the same fruitless task that Zuko had been saddled with all those years ago: hunting the Avatar.

Fate sure had an odd sense of humor.

-o-

After eight days, they were all going a little crazy. The close quarters and long hours getting jolted around in the smoky tank grated all of their nerves. Azula kept them going at a merciless pace, driving long into the night and getting going early in the morning, sometimes even before light, stopping only to poke around dingy towns to seek out signs of the Avatar. Little sleep, tank-battered muscles, and no sign of their prey took its toll on everyone. Azula dealt with it by nastily sniping at anyone who disturbed her plotting and map-staring, Ty Lee and Blabbermouth dealt with it by flirting even more outrageously with each other, Blockhead dealt with it by talking even less and sticking with the eelhounds whenever he wasn't following specific orders to the contrary.

Mai didn't really deal with it at all. She sat in the tank with her feet curled up on the bench and responded whenever Azula demanded a response. She picked up the skill of doing her hair without a mirror and sometimes caught a few hours of sleep despite the cold and hard ground and wind. She trailed after the princess through squalid village markets and even the dining rooms of peasant inns and taverns. She sharpened her knives.

After all, boredom was nothing new, even if it was slightly disappointing.

On a particularly stuffy afternoon in the hot iron tank, Azula decided she'd had enough.

"I can't think in this tin can!" the princess exploded, snapping down _Li's Atlas of the Southern Earth Kingdom_ so abruptly the scroll almost ripped and making Blabbermouth halt right in the middle of the inane story he'd been telling Ty Lee. "Lieutenant, change course to six points south-southwest. The town of Daku Kan has been under Fire Nation control for nearly a year now, and there's a military outpost there. We need to restock our supplies. Don't sit there gaping, Lieutenant, steer this tank!"

"Ah—yes, Princess, immediately," stammered the talkative driver, wrenching the steering levers so hard that the whole tank jolted and clanked in protest, making Ty Lee squeal with laughter and several of Azula's scrolls and papers go flying to the floor.

Mai blinked slowly, then resumed staring at the ceiling.

-o-

It was clearer that night than it had been for the last few days. Usually Mai wouldn't have cared one way or another, but in the arid climate of the Southern Earth Kingdom, night and no cloud cover meant shivering cold despite the warmth of the day. Silently cursing the Earth Kingdom and its insane weather patterns, Mai sat as close to the campfire as she could without singeing herself and sharpened her spare knives. Hopefully when they reached Daku Kan they'd be able to sleep in a _building_. With, you know, _walls_ and a _ceiling_ and _beds_.

At least it was mostly quiet. Blockhead was off again feeding the eelhounds or whatever it was he actually did, and Ty Lee and Tazh had wandered into the darkness, saying something about exploring the craggy rock formation they'd set up camp beneath. Occasionally Mai caught a scrap of their conversation or laughter and rolled her eyes.

Azula, on the other hand, was completely engrossed in her maps. Again. Or still. Both, Mai supposed. A handful of unflickering blue flame cupped in one hand, the princess propped her chin on her fist and glared down at the parchment scrolls as though trying to frighten them into telling her the whereabouts of the Avatar.

"We should have heard something by now," Azula muttered. Whether or not she was talking to herself or to Mai was unclear. "Even a sky bison couldn't possibly move so fast that they wouldn't have had to stop somewhere we have. The only logical explanation is that they didn't travel in this direction."

"…That does make sense," Mai answered, when it became clear that some response was expected.

"Well, they _should_ have," Azula said irritably, glowering at the map as though it were at fault for this apparent discrepancy in her predictions.

Opting for silence, she sighted along her dagger in the flickering red light to see if she'd gotten the miniscule nick out of it. Getting caught in an argument between reality and Azula's expectations of it did not seem like the healthiest idea.

"He must have _some_ plan or purpose in mind," Azula reasoned, clicking her pointed nails against the map. "He's the Avatar, an airbender. We know he went to the North Pole to become a waterbender. It makes the most sense that he's in the Earth Kingdom now looking for an instructor in earthbending. He goes to Omashu for this purpose, finds it conquered. He must look elsewhere. The next logical place—really, the _first_ logical place to have gone is Ba Sing Se. Therefore he should have headed northeast. Clearly he hasn't. So where, if not Ba Sing Se?"

Mai had no clue, so she settled for an easy answer. "Wherever he's gone, he can't hide forever."

"No," Azula agreed, her voice hardening. "He can't."

They subsided into silence again, Mai polishing the newly-sharpened blade and Azula staring unblinkingly into the flames. Plotting, probably, gears turning as infallibly and rapidly as the cogs and cranks and gears in the tank. Well, if anyone could catch the Avatar, Mai reflected, it was Princess Azula. If all else failed she'd probably burn down the whole world until she smoked out her prey.

"I will not fail this mission, Mai," Azula said suddenly. Mai glanced up through her fringe in slight surprise. The princess sounded almost defiant, something she had never seen in her friend's voice before. The Firelord's heir did not need to _defy_ anyone; she told them what was what, and that was that. Her cold amber eyes were still fixed on heart of the fire, the oranges and golds almost giving her eyes the illusion of something other than ice.

"I know," Mai said, raising a brow quizzically. Since when had there been any doubt?

"I _will not_ fail where my idiot brother has failed. I will not let Father down," the princess reiterated harshly.

"I know."

Azula laughed a little, sitting back and beginning to roll up her maps. "I've missed having you around, Mai. You don't always pay very good attention but you're always so honest. And you always agree with me. It's a good combination."

"…Thanks."

"It's really not the same, dealing with all these idiotic old fuddy-duddy generals and officials. It was wise of me to put together this smaller force. Even though the auxiliary help is inappropriately…" she grimaced off in the direction Blabbermouth and Ty Lee had vanished, "…egalitarian."

Mai couldn't help but scoff disgustedly at that.

"Yes, men do seem to gravitate toward her, don't they?" Azula scowled disapprovingly into the darkness. "Still, I can imagine scenarios where it might become useful, if necessary…." And suddenly her amber gaze landed consideringly on Mai. "In fact, I can expect certain tactics may become useful once we've captured the Avatar and can return our focus to my loser uncle and Dum-Dum…."

"If you say so," Mai said neutrally, bending down to rummage through her bag for a finer-woven polishing cloth to cover for the sudden nasty taste in her mouth. Was Azula actually suggesting Mai might be able to _seduce_ Zuko?

Had she really wanted Mai to come along for her knife skills, or had she had that in mind all along?

With any luck, it wouldn't come to that, Mai thought crossly, pulling out the cloth she was looking for. Not that she seemed to have _that _in spades.

"I'm glad I can count on you girls," Azula said, and she sounded so thoughtful and tiredly sincere, Mai didn't know if she should be angry or not. So instead she continued polishing the knife.

-o-

As it turned out, Azula's frustration probably saved them from useless months of pointless searching in all the wrong places.

Back in burgundy and in marginally less of a foul mood after spending the night on one of the best military-issue cots Daku Kan had to offer instead of the ground, it took less coaxing than usual for Ty Lee to convince Mai to come out with her to poke around the town. Azula looked up for less than an instant from the pile of maps she was hunched over, waving them off with a cross statement to the effect that she was busy. Mai got the distinct impression she hadn't slept at all; they'd left her in more or less the same position the night before after she'd debriefed and interrogated the Daku Kan post commander.

"That's ok, we can take a break and just have some fun!" Ty Lee told Mai, pulling her along by the sleeve. "Boy, I sure am glad to be able to wear pink again! Say, I saw some really cute scarves on our way in yesterday, Mai, we should go try some on—"

"Oh joy, sounds great," Mai sighed, allowing herself to be pulled.

"Oh, are you ladies heading out into the town?" Lieutenant Blabbermouth hurried over to them as the two girls headed across the military outpost courtyard. He flashed a smile at Ty Lee so oily it made Mai nauseous. "Need a bodyguard? There are Army guards posted all over town but they're probably not as—"

"We can take care of ourselves, thank you," Mai said coolly just as Ty Lee was about to eagerly agree, this time pulling the other girl along behind _her._

"Oh, come on, Mai, Tazh is really funny—"

"Let's go look at those scarves or whatever."

As soon as they were well into the town, Mai muttered to her friend, "What do you even see in him? He's just a commoner. Your parents would _freak_."

"I don't care what my parents think," Ty Lee laughed her off. "Besides, freak if I what? It's not like I'm out to _marry_ him, Mai. He just likes me and he's fun. We're just _talking_."

Mai frowned. "Yeah, he's good at that." _Not so good at shutting up though._

"What are you so charred about?" Ty Lee said a little defensively.

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on, Mai, don't be like that. We can't _all_ date princes."

Her face set, dozens of forced dates with dozens of stranger suitors spinning through her head. Ty Lee hadn't stuck around long enough to give her parents the chance to put their daughter through all that. And anyway, the only prince around was not in a position to be dating anyone in the Fire Nation anytime soon. Unless Azula ordered someone to do it to lure him into a trap. Her heart contracted. "No. We can't," Mai replied curtly, looking away and examining the vendors they were passing with disinterest. Hm, fried peppers…she wondered if they were actually hot. Maybe some Fire Nation civilization was rubbing off on the locals.

She blinked, startled, when Ty Lee gave her arm an apologetic squeeze. "I'm sorry, Mai, I shouldn't have said that."

Relaxing slightly, Mai looked sidelong at her friend, who looked almost pathetically guilty. She really didn't need some mushy reaffirmation of their friendship, so she simply said lightly, "Said what?" then pointed ahead. "Is that the scarf stand you were talking about?"

"Ooh, yes! Aren't they pretty? They're so –what's the word, Mai? Like silky, whispery, wishy…"

"…Wispy?"

"Yes! Like spiderwasp silk! You always know what I mean. Look at that pink—" Ty Lee stopped and gasped so loud Mai automatically dropped a stiletto to one hand, glancing around for an attacker. "_Zhang? _Is that you?"

A dark, burly guy talking to several other men in front of the smithy turned, frowning. "Ty Lee?"

Two of his companions, a giant with a braided beard and a leaner man with archer's tattoos, also turned. "Ty Lee! What are you doing on this side of the world?"

"It _is_ you! What are _you_ doing here?" Bouncing with delight, Ty Lee dragged a reluctant Mai over to the strangers.

After an uncomfortable amount of hugging (what was it with Ty Lee and men?), she introduced Mai to her friends. "These are the Rough Rhino Singers, Mai—or half of them anyway! This is Zhang, Kachi, and Koju. They have the most amazing voices you've ever heard. You guys _have_ to sing for her sometime. The Rough Rhinos and BrightTop were in Fire Fountain City at the same time last summer and we performed together at the Solstice Festival! And this is my best friend Mai, her father's the governor of Omashu."

"Lady," Kachi, the one with the long braided beard, said politely. They all exchanged bows.

"But what _are _you doing here?" Ty Lee laughed, one hand still on the archer's arm. Mai stifled a grimace. "Are you boys still singing?"

"Nope. The Rough Rhinos are all still together, but we're under contract with the Fire Nation army now," answered Zhang, leering at a passing Earth Kingdom civilian. The man flinched and hurried on his way.

"Better pay than singing," grunted Kachi, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Mongke's been assigned as a colonel. We get put on special assignment sometimes, but mostly we're disrupting trade routes and mopping up the little villages around here," Koju, the archer, explained.

"Yup. A thousand crowns for every village brought under the Firelord."

"That sounds great!" Ty Lee said enthusiastically.

"It's a pretty good deal," said Zhang, his grin showing off a glinting gold tooth. "At this rate, we may actually get to retire before we're dead after all." Ty Lee and the Rough Rhinos all laughed at what was apparently an old joke. "What about you? I haven't heard anything about the circus being in town. Didn't know BrightTop ever went overseas."

"Oh, no. I guess you could say we're on special assignment too," Ty Lee grinned at Mai, who did not return the smile. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "We're here with the princess, hunting the Avatar!"

"The Avatar?"

The change in their mood was instantaneous. They all stood straighter, exchanging dark, significant glances with each other. "Well good luck with _him_. That twerp's no easy catch."

Mai arched a brow, tucking her hands into the opposite sleeves. "Personal experience?"


	11. Hunting

**So while rewatching some episodes for reference I realized that the lizard creatures that our hunters ride in **_**The Chase**_** and the giant eelhound that Sokka, Suki, and Toph ride to get to the fleet in **_**Sozin's Comet**_** are not in fact the same species…anyone know what these lizardy things actually are? I'll probably go back and make edits if I find it….**

**In other news: sorry it's been so long. And in the comedy section: while finishing this chapter, I found some of my early working notes speculating that this would be a 3-shot. ha ha! ugh.**

**Hunting.**

"A week ago, in Chin Village?"

"Yes, Princess. Exactly a week today."

Mai and Ty Lee leaned over the post commander's desk (the princess had co-opted the hapless man's entire office) to see the spot on the map Azula and Colonel Mongke were referring to. It position relative to Omashu was, Mai observed, as directly opposite the path Azula had led them as the Avatar could have gone without actually diving into the ocean and _swimming_ away. There was no way the princess wasn't thinking the same thing, but she said nothing about it, simply continued questioning the leader of the Rough Rhinos.

"We will leave immediately," Azula said when she was satisfied. "You there," she barked at the soldier standing post by the door. "Have Lieutenants Tazh and Tairo prepare the tank. And fetch me a messenger hawk." Deftly she began rolling the map back up. "We'll have the Avatar in chains by this time next week."

Colonel Mongke bowed low, the feathers in his topknot bobbing. Mai wondered if the man realized how ridiculous they looked. "Any further orders, Princess?"

For a split instant Mai saw Azula meant to dismiss him before reconsidering. "Yes. I'm requisitioning your patrol for special assignment. You would know my brother and uncle on sight, I presume."

"I would recognize General Iroh," Colonel said stiffly, after a breath of a pause. He did an almost ok job, Mai thought, of masking his reluctance. Not nearly good enough to fool Azula. "I have never seen the prince."

"Hmm. You will be able to recognize him by the ugly scar covering the left half of his face," Azula said, waving a condescending hand. Mai gazed down at the map, focusing more intently on the lines and dots of ink on the parchment to keep any uninvited mental images from drifting into her mind. "There must be a wanted poster somewhere on post. Get one from the commander. Report to me by hawk any information on them you come across, raze any village that has aided them. And if you encounter them, take them. Preferably alive," she added, as though it were an afterthought, which Mai was sure it was not. Cold eyes narrowed. "Remember, Iroh is a traitor to the Fire Nation. We can have no tolerance for traitors…or those who abet them."

The Rhino bowed low. "Yes, Princess."

-o-

Apparently going in the right direction made a difference. In the first Earth Kingdom village they checked, the trackers hit pay dirt. The entire town was out in the streets, gossiping and arguing over the latest news:

The Avatar, it was rumored, had robbed the Bei Fong family of Gaoling.

Despite the general disdain the Fire Nation nobles held for the mud people, the Bei Fongs were still well known; they were the wealthiest family in the region, possibly in the entire Earth Kingdom outside of Ba Sing Se. Mai knew they were very, very distantly related to Azula—fifth or sixth cousins many times removed, though it would have been dangerously impolitic to say so.

There seemed to be no consensus on what, exactly had been stolen. Some said it was an ancient family heirloom, others said it was simply money. A few claimed they had actually kidnapped Lord Bei Fong's child, arguing against those who pointed out that this branch of the Bei Fong family _had_ no children that he or she had been kept secret for some reason; because they had stolen the child from yet another family, because it was illegitimate, because it had been born horribly disfigured or disabled. Still others refused to believe there was any truth to any of these claims, and said that the Bei Fongs must be secret allies of the Fire Nation, and were trying to discredit the Avatar.

In all the tangle of rumors, speculation, and exaggeration, one thing was agreed upon: two days previous, the Avatar had been in Gaoling.

"We must be practically on top of them," Azula exulted, unfurling her map with a flourish and stretching it out on a flat rock. That odd, distant look that meant she was doing math in her head glazed her eyes for a moment. "Based on the rate they must be traveling, they may be anywhere in this range." She drew a short arc around the dot marked _Gaoling _with one nail. "Instead of tracking the rumor of his passage through Gaoling, we'll move to cross their path and cut them off."

"I'm sure they'll love the surprise," Ty Lee enthused, twirling on the spot.

Mai simply nodded. While the prospect of _finally _getting a rematch against Ponytail and Waterwitch was the best thing she'd heard in days, she was preoccupied. The rumors about the Avatar's exploits in Gaoling bothered her.

Specifically, that bit about possibly having kidnapped a child.

After all, if the Avatar wasn't above stealing and/or abducting _other_ kids, how could they be absolutely certain he hadn't kept _her_ brother? Or just left him in some Earth Kingdom village, or…something? Mai's imagination spiraled into one wild idea after another. Azula had said the Avatar was trying to learn all the elements, right? Well, he'd never find a firebender willing to teach him, so what if he'd decided to just steal and raise his own?

Mai was pretty sure that wouldn't actually work. The Avatar seemed to be in a hurry, and it was too early to tell if Pukeface even _was _a firebender yet. All in all it seemed like a pretty stupid, inefficient strategy. But still, he _was _the Avatar, a being who supposedly had the memories of many, many past lives, who communicated directly with the spirits. Maybe he thought differently about these kinds of things, or had ways of knowing things they didn't—

"Mai? You awake in there?"

Mai scowled as Ty Lee tapped on her forehead. Both girls were looking at her expectantly. Clearly she'd missed something. She had a pretty good idea of what. "Yeah. Back in the tank. Yay." Splaying her fingers in a sarcastic display of excitement, she got up, slapping the dust from her legs.

If they had her brother, well, she'd deal with it when they got to them.

"Yes," said Azula, a hard light shining in her eyes. "Let's go catch this Avatar."

-o-

The terrain grew wooded and hilly as they raced southeast. Often the tank would jump alarmingly as they hit a particularly large rock or tree root. With the way they got jolted around in the uncushioned iron tank, Mai fully expected they would be more bruises than not by the time they finally caught up to the Avatar.

They began riding the lizards more often while camped, so they'd be ready to run when the time came. Mai hadn't ridden regularly since she was a child (she'd never liked it much, and her parents hadn't found it necessary to have her trained on anything more than basic skills anyway), but it had come back to her easily. The army lizard was slightly larger than the one she occasionally rode at home, and its temperament not as placid. Not that that was a bad thing. To be more placid than the beast she'd learned on, it would have to be in a coma. She'd mentally named it Slobber, due to its disgusting habit of letting its tongue hang out.

Rather than keeping up the brutal pace they had maintained in their pointless detour to the north, Azula now ordered a stop once an hour or so. Armed with a telescope and an expression of cold determination, she would scale the highest available tree or outcropping and have a look around. What, precisely, Azula was looking for, Mai was not certain. A giant sign with an arrow saying _Avatar campsite, right over here!_ ? Did she expect to actually catch sight of the beast in transit?

At least it gave them a chance to get out of the tank for a few minutes.

"I hate this," Mai groaned, stretching her stiff joints. If it took much longer to find their prey, she'd probably never be able to move again.

"Ah, it feels so good to be outside," Ty Lee sighed happily, taking a colossal breath of the early evening air with her arms outspread then cartwheeling around the clearing.

Something caught in Mai's hair, and she flicked it irritably away. "Yeah. It's so great, being out here with the dirt and the bugs and the…everything."

"What is that?" Azula's sharpened nails suddenly pinched closed in front of Mai's face, trapping the whatever-it-was she'd just brushed out of her hair.

It was a twisted, wispy white strand of…something. Something that had been in her _hair_.

"Ugh, _gross_," Mai muttered, giving her bangs a good swipe-down just in case.

"Bison fur," the princess stated, eyes glinting.

Even _grosser_.

"We've caught their trail," Azula said, looking around quickly. Now that she was searching for them, Mai saw there were more faint wisps of white floating on the wind, catching in the trees and underbrush. She shuddered slightly, brushing her shoulders. That was seriously disgusting. The stuff was _everywhere._

"Ew…"

"Come on!"

Right. Back in the tank. Again. The Avatar and his companions had better make this chase worthwhile, Mai thought sourly, still wiping at her sleeves.

"Try to get some sleep," Azula ordered the other girls as they climbed in. "We won't be making camp tonight. Lieutenant, follow that trail."

Sleep? In this thing? Yeah right.

Even if it weren't such a bumpy ride, Ty Lee's excitement made sleep impossible. She bounced and shifted restlessly in the bench across from Mai, kicking her heels against the underside of the seat and occasionally uttering some animated non-sequitur or rambling off into a circus story. Azula had swapped places with her so she could peer through the viewing slit as they rocketed through the dimming evening. Her exuberant fidgeting wasn't _so_ annoying, though. Blabbermouth's poorly-concealed terror at having the princess sitting in the co-driver's seat and scowling at the thin strip of sky beside him made it completely worth it. Mai smirked into her sleeve.

"There!" Azula snapped suddenly, making Tazh jump like a nervous owlcat, Ty Lee practically dive into the front seat to have a look, and Mai blink. "Above the treeline! They're on the run! They seem to think they can outrun us…well, they're about to find out otherwise."

Mai leaned forward alongside Ty Lee, squinting at the stripe of darkness. Sure enough, moonlight glinted off a fluffy white form that was far too low- and fast-flying to be a cloud.

Apparently the bison _could_ outrun a tank, though, because soon their prey dwindled out of sight. Mai settled back into her bench. More time in the clanker. Was this chase _ever_ going to end?

"It doesn't matter. The beast can't fly forever. They have to stop and rest eventually."

They rattled and bumped on through the night, occasionally catching sight of their tiring quarry taking off again in flight. If sleep had seemed impossible before, now it wasn't even worth considering. Mai whiled away the hours with her eyes closed, running through her throwing forms in her head and shutting out Ty Lee's occasional prattling. By the time Azula caught sight of them camped up on a hilltop and ordered them to halt and mount up, Mai felt almost rested.

Almost.

Stumbling a little from stiffness, the three hunters slipped through the dust kicked up by the braked tank, back to the lizard trailer. Two sharp raps against the iron side made the door open from the inside, Blockhead peering at them sleepily from the dim interior. The lizards hissed at the sudden rush of night air, poking their forked tongues out and tasting it.

"We're almost upon them, Lieutenant Tairo. We're mounting up," Azula said, her voice sharpened with anticipation.

"They're ready," Blockhead said, snapping alert at that.

Ty Lee happily accepted the lieutenant's help mounting her lizard, smiling at him and letting her hand linger a few seconds longer than necessary. When he offered a hand to Mai, still grinning slightly in the afterglow of the other girl's coy wink, she made a point of ignoring him and hoisting herself into Slobber's saddle without assistance. _Honestly_, if Ty Lee kept that up, she might actually have to talk to her about it—

The lizards seemed to enjoy riding in the tank as much as Mai did. Slobber shifted restlessly under her, hissing and huffing at the darkness and generally sounding offended by its lot in life. Mai could sympathize. She rubbed idly at its neck, the smooth scales warm under her hands. Jeez, it got cold at night in the Earth Kingdom.

Blue flame crackled to life, suspended above Azula's hand, and filled moving chamber with pale, shivering light and shadows. "Remember, the Avatar is the only one we need alive," she said. The upcast of blue light sharpened her features, giving her the look of some malevolent ice spirit.

_Typical_, Mai thought, that Azula could make even fire seem cold.

The tank tilted, making the lizards chitter and shuffle. Going uphill. Loosening up her shoulders, Mai gathered the reins into one gloved hand.

With a rumble the tank ground to a halt, and Lieutenant Blockhead released the door bolts.

Mai dug her heels into Slobber's sides, and in a rush of cold night air, they were out. Quickly, she took stock of the situation, loosening the darts in her arm sheathes. A rocky trail wound up the hill where their quarry stood.

The Avatar and his companions had decided to make a stand and fight instead of running any farther. There were four of them now—a tiny girl in Earth Kingdom clothing had joined them. The rumored Bei Fong bastard, perhaps? A quick scan showed no sign of Heizin Tom, which could have been either good or bad. But speculation could wait until they were captured. All the stiffness seemed to melt away from her limbs with the heat of adrenaline. Spurring Slobber onward, Mai barreled up the path with her companions. Finally, some real action!

Or, you know, not.

Things started out promisingly. Azula had evidently picked up the habit of slinging lightning around, which was new to Mai (and Ty Lee too, by the look on her face), and the Avatar had picked up an earthbender (who was not much use to them, thanks to the lizards). The showdown lasted just long enough to establish those two facts before the Avatar and his companions were fleeing again.

Mai narrowed her eyes as the giant beast shrank into the night sky yet again. Were they _ever _going to give her the pleasure of a decent skirmish?

"They can't get far," Azula said in a clipped tone. "They're exhausted. Sooner or later they won't be able to run anymore."

Right, thought Mai sourly. That's what Azula had been saying all night. Even when they were practically stepping on the Avatar's heels her strategies didn't seem to be working out so well. Perhaps it was just that she was on short sleep and therefore more crabby than usual, but she was starting to get impatient with the princess and her methods. Back in the tank, right. Of course. The stupid, clanking, blabbery-lieutenant-infested tank without their prisoners, yet again. For as much as her friend went on and on about what a dunce Zuko must be to not be able to catch the Avatar, Mai couldn't see that Azula was doing any better.

On they sped, as the grey light of dawn bled through the viewing port.

-o-

Falling asleep in the tank had seemed impossible, but when Ty Lee shook her awake she found the hazy dim of predawn had bloomed into full-blown morning sunlight.

"Come on, Mai! We've caught a clear trail!" her friend crowed, grinning maniacally.

The tank had pulled up alongside a stream, in a long, grassy clearing. The fresh morning air was sweet and musky with pine, and the sky was clear and blue overhead. And of course, all this nature was liberally dusted with wisps of bison fur. Mai began to consider scooping some water from the stream to drink (she would never had believed she'd think something as uncivilized as _that _a mere week ago, ugh) before realizing even the clear water was swimming with the wretched stuff. Azula was actually crouching down by the water, raking her fingers through it and pulling up dripping globs of it.

"Wads of wet fur. How delightful," she commented, standing a decent way back.

"Hmm, they're not wads…" Ty Lee mused. Mai watched Azula stand and look around as the other girl rambled on in this vein, squinting over the trees and glaring at everything. Plotting. Reconstructing the scene in her head. Coming up with a plan, hopefully.

"…it's got an 'uh' sound…."

Mai glanced back at Ty Lee. "…Clumps?"

"Clumps! They're clumps!" Ty Lee squealed, throwing her arms around Mai's neck. Bracing herself against this attack of affection, Mai sighed. How even Ty Lee could get excited about such a thing, she had no idea. Waiting patiently for her to let go, Mai's eyes dropped to the grass and spotted a veritable road of white fur.

"The trail goes this way," she called to Azula, giving Ty Lee a little push and pointing into the trees, but the princess didn't look from where she was crouched. Instead she was peering up over the trees in the opposite direction. Abruptly she turned, eyes narrowed.

"The Avatar is trying to give us the slip. You two head in that direction" pointing behind herself, over the trees, "and keep an eye out for the bison." Only now, Mai noticed the broken branches at the edge of the treeline, where some enormous flying creature had crashed through the tops of the pines. Coming back to them, she indicated the path Mai had spotted. "I'll follow this trail. We'll take the lizards, and rendezvous back here. The men will stay here and guard the tank." Without further ado she strode back to the lizard carrier.

"Isn't Azula brilliant?" Ty Lee chirped, bouncing on her heels then cartwheeling after her.

"Sure," Mai muttered, following. Just what she needed in her life, more air bison.

-o-

Riding the lizards was, however, a huge improvement over riding in the tank. Slobber seemed to agree. The forest air was crisp and cool, warming quickly as the sun crept higher. Trees flashed by as they scrambled over and around fallen logs and boulders. Occasionally she was jolted in her saddle, but Slobber was eager to follow her reins, eager to be finally running a decent stretch of ground. The same excitement that had come at the standoff in Omashu began to tingle, warm and cold at the same time, on her fingertips.

"Look!" Ty Lee shouted happily. Mai looked up through the trees. There, flying low over the tops of the pines ahead of them, was a familiar white form. A smirk tugged the corner of her mouth. Finally, they were on the right track.

The beast was tiring. The night before it had easily outpaced the tank, but now the much slower lizards gained quickly, even over the rough terrain. As they neared, she could see how the six great paws scooped at the air sluggishly, as though it were trying to swim through fireberry syrup, dipping in the air and then recovering every several seconds. Mai guessed that its passengers would not be any better off. From what she could see, it was just Ponytail and the water witch. No sign of the Avatar, or the little Earth Kingdom girl.

It wasn't until the pursuers were right upon them that the prey realized they were being followed. They were so close Mai could see their open-mouthed faces, and hear their panicked shouts. The waterbender snapped the reins, but it was hopeless. Despite its riders' desperate urging, the exhausted beast was faltering, its great legs catching at the tops of the trees and snapping branches.

She could see the whites of Ponytail's eyes now, as they raced below and alongside the bison's falling path. A testing flick of her arm confirmed they were in throwing range, making the boy shout and fall back into the saddle as the steel-tipped darts skipped past, barely missing him.

Not that there was any need. The rush of water grew louder and the trees grew sparser, and suddenly they were coming upon another twist of the stream. With a colossal splash, the bison dove from the air at last, crash-landing through the water to fall in a crumpled heap on the opposite bank at last. Ty Lee crowed with triumph, and even Mai couldn't help but grin.

The Water Tribe kids, somehow oblivious to their peril, actually jumped off and started hugging each other. Mai didn't pause to think about what on earth made them think they were safe before bracing herself for the crossing. Rearing up on the hind legs, the lizards skipped over the water easily.

_That_ got the attention of their prey. Mai's veins sang with adrenaline as a ridge of water surged at them, courtesy of the water witch, and she easily veered around it as Ty Lee leapt from her mount. Within seconds they were upon them.

The fight was quick and pathetic. The Avatar's friends were tired and slow, and allowed Mai and Ty Lee to separate them far too easily. A mere minute later the two girls found themselves surveying their new prisoners in shambles. Crumpled on the ground and pinned to a tree, they weren't even _trying._

Closer inspection confirmed that these two, at least, hadn't gotten a wink of sleep throughout the night. Dark rings were slung under their bloodshot eyes, and the water witch slumped against the tree as though she'd fall over if it weren't there. Once again Mai was mildly surprised by how _young _the Avatar's companions were. Why didn't someone like the Avatar have a patrol of bodyguards? Or an army, spark's sake? These were _kids._

From the look of them, Mai mused, narrowing her eyes, they might have been related, too. There was a lot of resemblance in the shape of the eyes and nose. It was hard to tell, but she thought they might be cousins or even siblings.

That speculation just made her think of Heizin Tom.

"I thought when Ty Lee and I finally caught you guys, it would be more exciting," she drawled, not letting her mind pursue that thought. "Oh well, victory is boring."

Her mind should have been on her surroundings.

There was an animal grunt behind them, and then she and Ty Lee were flying through the air. Mai barely had time to think _Char that bison! _and gasp before crashing into the stream.

The shock of the spring snowmelt hit first, and then she was breathing water. Mai hated swimming, hated water, hated being soaked and especially hated being cold. Stamping down on her instinct to panic, Mai pushed down with her feet and came into contact with the slippery flow of water-worn stone. She kicked hard.

The brilliant, bitter cold of the surface felt like falling in all over again. Mai coughed and choked, desperately clamping down on her fear and treading water as well as she could in the rapid current. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. Her toes could reach the bottom if she stretched, the stream was not that wide, and Ty Lee's braided head was gasping only a couple meters away. She wasn't going to drown.

Though she might freeze to death. Ugh.

Gathering herself, Mai struck out for shore, imagining all the horrible things she would do to that bison if she ever got the chance. Sure, it was easy to win every little confrontation when you had a giant air-blowing _monster _on your side. She'd like to see just how good those Water Tribe brats were when they didn't have their stupid pet to depend on.

By the time they crawled up onto the bank, they had to have been carried at least an hour's walk downstream. More than enough time for their quarry to get away, even exhausted as they were. And they'd have to track down the lizards. Hopefully they hadn't wandered off too far. But hoping really wasn't one of her strong points.

Agni, she hated being wet. Those leather knife sheathes took forever to dry out.

Next to her, Ty Lee began wringing out her braid, a thoughtful look on her face. "It is just me, or was that guy kind of cute?"

Mai rolled her eyes, scowling. Trust Ty Lee to have her priorities straight.

"Come on," she muttered, struggling to her feet and attempting to wring the worst of the water out of her full sleeves. "We should get back so Azula can kill us."


	12. Playtime

**Kind of a shorty here. Drop a line on me if this is getting boring, yeah? Forget Mai, _I'm_ sick of them riding around the Earth Kingdom, and I can't decide if I need to skip past some of the choreography to make their story fit the timeline to get to some of the more eventful canon bits. I intended a point to it all but I'm not sure it's really coming across. Tell me your thoughts.**

**EDIT: Changed Ching to Qin. I've been going off the Netflix subtitling but decided I liked the transcript spelling on avatarspirit . net better.  
**

* * *

**Playtime.**

By the time they rounded up their wandering lizards and made it back to camp, the sun was low and baleful on the horizon.

Azula wasn't there.

Lieutenant Tazh literally bit his tongue, nearly asking about their obvious lack of prisoners before realizing what a bad idea that was. "Standing orders, Lady?" he asked Mai, as Ty Lee and Lt. Tairo started unsaddling the lizards.

Mai looked around the clearing, rather wishing the princess would come cantering through the trees with a bound Avatar behind her this very moment. Giving orders had always been part of her life. The difference between telling the house girl which hairclips to fetch and telling a soldier what to do in the event of his commanding officer not returning from a fight, however, was more than enough to make her stomach shift. The man was staring at her expectantly, anxiously even.

The fact that the trained officer was so uncertain in a situation that didn't qualify as a crisis yet irritated her enough to bring some clarity to her mind.

"Start a fire. A small one." After running and riding around all afternoon in damp leathers, getting them dry was Mai's number one priority. "Don't set up camp yet."

"Yes ma'am!"

Pulling back her sleeves, Mai started to unbuckle her knife sheathes. The skin beneath them was chafed raw. How had Azula convinced her to come out here again? Well, better chafed and tired in some spirit-forsaken forest with her friends and a mission than whiling away the hours in Omashu.

Ty Lee was scratching at one of the lizard's necks, laughing and talking in a low voice with Lt. Tairo. Mai caught her eyes meaningfully, and the girl came bounding over.

"Mai, you needn't be so fussy about me talking to—"

"Never mind that right now," Mai muttered, stripping off her other wrist sheath and wincing. Crouching down, she began laying out the knives on a smooth rock. Ty Lee dropped into a lotus beside her. "What do you think is keeping Azula?"

"I don't know. I thought she'd be back before us," Ty Lee admitted, then, in a hushed voice, "Do you think we should go look for her?"

Her friend was giving her the same expectant, anxious look Lt. Tazh had. Mai wished she had something spicy to nibble on to help her think. Her first inclination was to shrug, sit back, and wait. Azula was in charge. It wasn't Mai's problem to think about strategy or whatever.

On the other hand, Azula wasn't here, and maybe there was a serious reason for it.

Trying to think like Azula always tied her head in knots. Frowning, Mai started stripping the blades out of her ankle sheathes. What could have delayed her?

Worst case scenario, she was dead, killed by the Avatar or that mud girl. There was nothing they could do, in that case. This was the princess's mission. They would have to report to the nearest Fire Nation outpost, probably back to Daku Kan.

Another possibility: she was still alive, but incapacitated. In that case, it was vital they go track her down immediately.

But both of these scenarios were difficult for Mai to wrap her head around. It seemed unbelievable that two exhausted kids, Avatar or not, could defeat or substantially hurt a warrior as skilled, clever, and ruthless as Azula. Mai discarded those two.

Just as unlikely, she could be lost. Mai tossed that idea out too. Her friend had proved many times over that she was perfectly capable of navigating her way around, even on cloudy days with no stars or sun to mark directions. One thing even Mai hadn't been able to complain about through this entire unsuccessful venture so far was getting lost.

The two things that she could think of that would have realistically delayed the princess were if the Avatar had led her on a much longer chase than the Water Tribe kids had done; or, if Azula had encountered more than just the Avatar, the weight of her prisoners was significantly slowing down her mount.

In either case, it seemed to Mai like the most sensible thing they could do was sit tight until she got back anyway. If she still hadn't returned by dark, they could always follow the fur trail and see where it took them.

Mai grimaced. More waiting.

-o-

It was dusk when the cranky hissing of a tired lizard heralded the princess's return. The lieutenants scrambled to their feet, bowing, as Ty Lee leapt up and Mai set down the knife she was sharpening to rise to her feet. There were no prisoners in sight.

"Azula!" Ty Lee cried, skipping over, but halted at the look on the princess's face. Blue flame flared in her hand as she swung one boot over the saddle and dropped, catlike, to the ground.

"Lieutenant Tairo, tend to the beast. Lieutenant Tazh…why don't you go fetch some firewood," Azula ordered.

Tairo hurried to obey silently, leading the lizard behind the tank. Tazh glanced at the large pile of firewood stocked by the campfire, then bowed again, scooping up a lit branch and disappearing into the darkness of the trees. Ty Lee looked frozen, as though the water witch had cast some spell over her that was only now taking effect.

Folding her hands into her sleeves, Mai calmly braced herself.

"Strange," Azula said conversationally, "that the trail would indicate that the Avatar had split his forces, and yet I still encountered him with _all _of his companions."

"Azula, we—" Ty Lee started.

The princess moved like a striking wolfsnake, backhanding her crisply across the face with a sharp _smack_. "You both failed me today," she said, as Ty Lee turned her face to look at her again, eyes shining with fear and guilt. "You will not do so again. This is not playtime in the Palace courtyard. I have a mission to fulfill and I will _not _fail."

_Don't apologize. You know apologies won't be accepted, _Mai thought at Ty Lee. Excuses never worked with Azula. The only way to deal with her rages was to quietly accept them, ride them out, and wait until she was calm again. But of course Ty Lee couldn't hear, and of course she apologized, fervently.

"Silence," Azula snapped. "Both of you sit." Immediately Ty Lee dropped down, and Mai slowly joined her, as the princess proceeded to inform them, in curt, cutting words, how the battle had gone.

"And the Avatar and his companions were not alone," she continued, standing over them with her arms crossed, the fire slicing shadows up her sharp cheekbones. "Dum-Dum and Uncle Kook were there as well."

Ty Lee gasped out loud. Mai said nothing, and returned the testing look Azula sent her with more nothing.

"However, I don't believe they have joined forces. The Avatar and his companions left without them. I injured the traitor, Iroh. He may be already dead or dying, though I cannot rest on that assumption," she went on, eyes not leaving Mai's. "At the least he is seriously wounded and will not be able to travel quickly. Mai, do you think it more likely that Zuko would stay with Iroh and be slowed down, or attempt to escape on his own?"

It took a moment for it to sink in that the question was not rhetorical. "…How should I know?"

"You were closer to him than anyone else before his shaming and banishment. If anyone is qualified to analyze his personality and potential actions, it's you."

Had she been? It had been years since she'd allowed herself to think about it. Mai pitched her voice so neutrally it came out monotone. "He was your brother."

One brow rose skeptically. Of course Zuko would never have been completely open with his sister. But Azula knew her brother inside and out, could dissect people's personalities and predict their actions far better than Mai could, whether he gave her his confidence or not, and it had been so long ago.

"It's been ages. He's probably changed a lot," Mai said.

"He has," Azula said, scorn edging her voice. "He's cut off his topknot and looks like an Earth Kingdom beggar. But that's not to say he's not the same impulsive idiot he was before."

Mai wished she could just get up and walk away. Was this her metaphorical slap to the face? Or was Azula trying to make some point, test her? She didn't want to think about Zuko, didn't want to stir up memories of him. She had spent the last three years carefully avoiding doing just that.

But they were coming back whether she wanted them or not, out of the dark corners and cracks where she had shoved them away; Zuko, showing her the knife his uncle had sent him from the war front, his face shining with glee, the warmth of his hand on the handle. His devastation at the death of Lu Ten. How proud and confident he had been to present Mai to Iroh and vice versa, that first time the old man had sat in for his vanished mother on their supervised meetings, introducing him to her as "Uncle" and not as "Prince".

Mai said, "I don't think he'd leave him. Even if he were dead he'd want to follow the pyre rites."

"Exactly," Azula said. It _had_ been some sort of test, then. Mai hadn't thought she'd be unsure about her own brother's motives. And apparently, she had passed. "They are a weak target right now. At first light we'll track them. It shouldn't take more than a day. Then we'll catch up with the Avatar.

"Get a few hours of sleep while you can. And Ty Lee, why don't you go find Lieutenant Tazh. He's found enough firewood by now."

-o-

Ty Lee was crying softly in the dark. Before Mai could make up her mind to say anything, there was the rustle of blankets, and Azula's whispering voice.

"Look, I'm sorry. I…shouldn't have hit you." Silence. "I just can't fail Father."

"I know." Sniffling. "It's ok. You're just really stressed right now. You're aura's been all crackly."

"…Hm." A pause. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah."

-o-

Mai barely slept all night, and when she did, she dreamt that she was in a wooden boat on the stream, and freezing water kept springing through seams and cracks and she couldn't plug them all.

-o-

When Azula got up and pulled on her boots, letting a brief triangle of dark grey predawn into the tent as she exited, Mai was already awake. Had been for over an hour. She sat up, listening to Azula kick the lieutenants out of bed, her no-nonsense footsteps marching around and voice snapping out orders.

"Ty Lee. Hey." She shoved lightly at a nearby lump of blankets, which groaned. A sleepy face emerged, squinting blearily.

"Time to get up?"

"Yeah. Rising and shining before the sun. Hooray."

"'K." Ty Lee yawned hugely, knuckling her eyes. "So we're gonna go catch Zuko and Prince Iroh today, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Mm." The other girl propped herself up on her elbows, blinking groggily at the tent entrance. Then she said, very quietly, "What do you think will happen to them after we catch them?"

_Azula_, Mai thought. "Who knows," she said, rolling to her feet and pushing out into the crisp cool of predawn.

But some capricious spirit out there must have had pity on the exiles; and whatever it was, it had a strong sense of irony, acting through the last agent anyone would have expected.

The black-ribboned hawk circled and swooped down to them even as the men were packing away camp and the princess and her fighters were having what Tazh referred to as "standing breakfast" (and what Mai referred to as "disgusting dry crackers"). The message was sealed with gold dust-infused red wax, impressed with the Firelord's own seal. Azula's eyes narrowed then widened in fury as she read it, her face going pale.

Ty Lee jumped in surprise and even Mai took a step back when the parchment burst into blue flames in her hands.

"No," Azula said with a cold, brittle flatness that was much more frightening than a shout, oblivious to the fire licking at her fingers, the charred flakes of parchment fluttering to the ground. "How could he do this to me? He doesn't understand. If he knew how close I am—!"

She turned sharply away from them, fists clenching, breathing with control.

"What is it, Azula?" Ty Lee asked tentatively.

Azula took two more breaths before replying. When she finally spoke, it was with the cool, practiced voice she used when explaining to people who tried to reason with her why the laws of nature were less important than her orders. "Father commends my initiative in requisitioning the Rhinos to track the traitors, and sends reminder that hunting the Avatar was not part of my assignment. I am to immediately report to Duzhou Outpost to oversee the invasion of Ba Sing Se."

"You're invading Ba Sing Se?" Ty Lee's mouth dropped into an 'o' that would have been comical in any other situation.

The memory of her uncle's haggard face after his return from the failed siege when Mai was a child came to her, the tiredness of his voice. An invasion did not sound fun at all. And it would surely be long, arduous, and largely uneventful. The Dragon of the West's siege on the Earth Kingdom capital had crawled on for long, uneventful and costly years. And the more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Tens of thousands of soldiers had been recruited or conscripted to fill the ranks. The supplies, the iron, the ships that had been amassed for the effort had been colossal. Even Mai, who didn't exactly follow this sort of thing as a matter of interest—_especially_ Mai, whose father's land holdings contained some of the richest ore veins that kept the Fire Nation army running; who was unwillingly privy to the gossip of half the noble-born military officers in the royal army and navy, thanks to her mother—could not have _avoided_ hearing about it if the Firelord were planning another fullscale attack on Ba Sing Se. Simply raising an army large enough to attempt such a thing and shuttling it to the larger continent would take nearly a year.

Azula scowled darkly. "Not like that failure Iroh, but no better. This secret plan has been in motion for over a year. My father is entertaining a _theory_ dreamed up by War Minister Qin." The acid in her voice could have dissolved rock.

Mai clearly remembered sitting through several extremely long, boring rants about the War Minister, before being sent away to Omashu. Azula had certainly never been forgiving in her opinion of the man. Based on some of the…imaginative tactics he had proposed in the past, Mai couldn't blame her.

"What kind of theory?" Ty Lee was asking, still goggling. "How is something like that a _secret_?"

"Only the highest-ranked councilors and the soldiers and engineers assigned to the project know of it. Everyone involved has been held to secrecy, on pain of death." Usually pain of death was not something to make Azula roll her eyes in incredulous disgust. "This is a waste of my time. The Avatar cannot be more than a day's journey from—" Cutting off in mid-sentence, Azula glared off into the trees as though she wanted to burn the entire forest down.

Nobody ever dared to say no to the princess. But even Azula had to bow to the whim of the Firelord, or face punishment.

In that moment, Mai suddenly felt closer to the other girl than she ever had.

-o-

The Earth Kingdom was far too big.

Forever seemed much longer than usual when it consisted of nothing but days stretching into weeks trapped in the tank listening to endless rounds of Ty Lee's new worst game in the world, which was "Guess What the Secret Invasion Plan Is". Mai hated the game and the hours of gaudy, unrealistic speculation that accompanied each theory from round one.

The princess refused to confirm or deny any of Ty Lee's wild guessing, or to talk about it at all. Unfortunately for Mai, she didn't tell Ty Lee to stop either, probably because making mockery of War Minister Qin was the tenuous thread that was keeping her from exploding.

By the second day of the northward race, Ty Lee was already coming up with invasion plans that involved giant koi fish with magical pink wings and flying soldiers over the walls in giant soap bubbles, and Mai was contemplating cutting off her own ears.

She could always just hide the resulting scars under her hair. Life would be much easier.

On the other hand, she was used to dealing with annoying blather. And having her nerves rubbed raw listening to ridiculous plans to invade Ba Sing Se was better than letting herself dwell on Ty Lee's earlier question.

_What do you think will happen to Zuko when we catch him?_


	13. Pressure

**Pressure.**

It was early, early morning when they finally arrived at a small outpost on the edge of the lake, to transfer to a boat for the remainder of the journey. They heard the camp hours before they arrived. The clanging of metal echoed eerily across the water, where a looming shadow took shape in the fog.

"Wow, it's _huge_! What do you think it is? Maybe I was right about the giant metal platypus bear!" Ty Lee said, standing on the middle rung of the ship's railing and leaning so far over the side Mai was certain she'd fall in if they hit so much as a ripple. "Come on, Mai, there's still time to guess. It's your turn again."

(Ty Lee had had to play all of Mai's previous turns for her, but that didn't stop her from trying every time.)

"Who cares. We'll be stuck with it soon enough."

None of Ty Lee's guesses came close.

"…So…what is it?" The acrobat asked again later that morning, as they stood dwarfed in the shadow of the monstrous mechanical…something. The clear light of day did little to solve the mystery. The great cylinder of iron towered over the tents and banners of the camp, as though some unimaginably giant being had dropped a scroll case there. The engineers and soldiers milling around its base were mere antwasps and the two-story wooden palisade surrounding the vast field of tan and scarlet tents was nothing but a rim of toothpicks around the gigantic _thing. _ "A battering ram?"

"It's a drill, Lady," said the corps colonel who had greeted them at the gate of the makeshift base. His back was ramrod-straight and his words neatly clipped. The look on his face before it had settled into its present wooden state, when he'd first seen the princess, had been one of comically exaggerated alarm. Mai smirked every time his eyes darted nervously over at Azula.

"A what now?"

"It works a little like an awl," the colonel explained. "The part on the front, there, with the deep tracks cut into it, is the actual drill. Those segments in the back push the entire machine forward. When the drill is powered up, the tracked part turns, cutting through stone like a turning awl cuts through wood. The machine will be able to break through the outer wall of Ba Sing Se in approximately an hour."

"In _theory_," Azula said in a sugary tone that somehow wasn't sweet at all.

"Er…yes, princess. Of course."

The whole idea sounded stupid to Mai. Even some of Ty Lee's suggestions had made more sense. (The drill was, at least, better than the soap bubble idea, but that wasn't saying much.) She couldn't see how anything that large could possibly travel across the ground, certainly not all the way to Ba Sing Se.

The soonest the drill could be finished and ready, according to the engineers, was in a month. According to Azula, it would be ready to move out in five days. Within hours of the girls' arrival, the war minister had developed an irritated tic in one eye. Evidently the dislike the princess held for her father's advisor was mutual.

The only person who _was_ happy was Ty Lee. Instead of two hapless lieutenants, she now had an entire division of men to tease and flirt with.

Joy.

-o-

_Dear Uncle Zoh;_

_Change of plans. We're going to invade Ba Sing Se now instead of chasing turtleducks all over this spirit-forsaken continent. I will find some of those stupid tasseled rugs you like so much if we ever get inside. Never thought I'd be the one sending _you_ stuff from the front._

_Or I will write you another riveting letter, detailing how many ways an idea can go wrong._

_Before you ask, yes, I've been keeping my knives in good condition. As if they'll ever get used again at this rate. Maybe if I am lucky the Earth King's army will put up a halfway decent fight, if they don't die from laughing. The princess says she will have me executed or something if I give away any specifics right now. If I finally get to come back to civilization you should visit me so I can tell you about it in person. _

_You were right. War sucks. I hope prison is better and you are not as bored as I am._

_Mai._

She couldn't send it like that. People had been banished and worse for criticizing the Firelord's battle plans (as she knew all too well). Sighing, Mai burned the letter in the candle she'd had one of the men get for her and wrote one that a royal scribe could read.

-o-

The seven days in the camp, Mai spent almost every minute not sleeping or eating practicing her throwing. Weeks of sitting had left her stiff and a little slow, so she trained every day until she could barely move, pausing often to stretch. She was in the middle of doing just that, sitting on the ground reaching past her toes, when Azula finally lost her temper.

The hair on the back of her arms and neck stood up. Having felt this once before, when Azula called lightning down on the Avatar in the mountains, she knew what was coming. While the men nearby jumped and gasped and shouted, Mai eked another fingerwidth out of her protesting calves. Cold lightning jagged up into the sky on the other side of camp, and thunder crackled back down. Smoke snaked up where the bolt had originated. She could just barely hear the strident tones of Azula chewing someone out—Minister Qin, no doubt.

About time. They were already two days behind the princess's insane schedule. Mai was mildly astounded she had been so patient.

Within minutes Ty Lee was cartwheeling through the milling soldiers to where Mai sat.

"Guess what, Mai? In an hour we're leaving for Ba Sing Se!"

"Finally," Mai muttered into her knees.

-o-

The entertainment of watching Azula and War Minister Qin aggravate each other by continuing to exist in the forced proximity of the drill wore thin after only a day. Mai found herself tagging along after Ty Lee, bored out of her mind, learning more about the mechanics of how giant drills worked than she had ever needed or wanted to know. It was all the more irritating because she knew Ty Lee wasn't interested either; she just used it as an excuse to flirt with the engineers.

"So what are these giant pipes for?" her friend was asking, head tilted in a way that Mai was coming to recognize as entirely calculated.

"They're for removing slurry," the engineer replied, leaning casually up against the pipe. Ty Lee had probably told Mai his name, but she had forgotten it. He had a voice like two especially pedantic rocks grinding together and a unibrow. Mai sort of wanted to offer to shave it for him as target practice. And if his nose came with it, well. She thought she could live with that sacrifice.

"What's slurry?" Ty Lee purred.

Mai sighed as the man rambled on for a while about waste removal and coolant. In a tone that was altogether too suggestive (or tried to be—his crumbly voice undermined the effect significantly) he went on, "Then the slurry is piped out the back of the drill. Otherwise, all that heat and pressure…builds up…." Ty Lee was actually holding her breath along with his gaze, eyes wide, "And that would be—"

"So once this thing gets going it leaves a huge, slimy sludge trail like a giant snailslug? How charming," Mai interrupted, breaking the spell. Ty Lee darted her a sour look while the engineer fumbled.

"Er, well, it could be put that way, Lady," he said, flushing up to his unibrow.

"Gross." Mai shuddered for effect more than anything. Though it did sound gross. Purely out of spite, she asked, "What if a big rock or something gets stuck in there? Then we'll all drown in mud anyway. That sounds _lovely_."

"There are failsafes, Lady." His moment ruined, Ty Lee's stupid toy irritably explained, "There are emergency sluices that could be opened up to redirect the slurry through the segment gaps, if something went wrong. But the odds of that happening are extremely low. The drill breaks up the rock into pieces much smaller than the diameter of the pipeline."

"Mm." Mai wasn't interested. She'd achieved her goal, which had been to put an end to the revolting conversation between the two. It had been about on the level of rock-mud juice in terms of making her want to throw up.

"Mai! Ty Lee!" one of the com-horns suddenly blared in a brassy version of Azula's voice, making Unibrow jump. "Get up to the bridge immediately."

Even as they turned to obey, the War Minister's only slightly resigned voice followed. "Attention, crew. The wall of Ba Sing Se has been sighted. Our ETA for contact is in six hours. Report to your stations and prepare for possible counterattacks."

Mai smirked to herself. One of Azula's favorite ways of aggravating Minister Qin was to deliver her own commands before he could get to the com-horn. He was probably steaming right now.

"Mai, I wish you wouldn't do that," Ty Lee sighed with frustration as they hurried down a rumbling corridor to report as ordered.

"Do what?"

"You know what I'm talking about! You know, boys would like you better if you weren't so negative all the time."

"I don't care if boys like me or not."

Ty Lee huffed as though she had just suggested that the Earth Kingdom was better than the Fire Nation.

-o-

When she was a very small child and had actually cared about that sort of thing, her mother always told her that if she watched the cherry buds they would never bloom. Mai was pretty sure the same principle applied to the wall of Ba Sing Se. It never seemed to get closer despite the fact that the drill actually moved quite a bit faster than it looked like it should.

It was a strange sensation. By now, she had somewhat gotten used to the constant hum and rumble beneath her feet and all around; but at first, it had been deafening. Unlike the tank, the drill did not roll ahead at a steady pace. It moved like an inchworm. For several long, shivering minutes, it seemed to a passenger as though it were holding position, like an owlcat waiting to pounce. At regular intervals, the entire segment one was standing in would then shove forward several meters, steam vents hissing shrilly. If someone wasn't expecting it, it was easy to lose one's balance, drop glasses, knock things over when these grinding, screeching shifts occurred. By about the twentieth time, though, Mai barely noticed. It all became the latest scenedrop to the complete lack of drama onstage.

The view from the elevated bridge contributed nothing, as there was nothing to view except flat, barren land, and the creeping wall. It was a mystery of the least interesting sort to Mai why Ty Lee wanted to hog the telescoping viewer so badly. Mai played idly with her knives while her friend kept up a running color commentary on the nothing happening outside, War Minister Qin struggled on in his doomed quest to impress Princess Azula, and Azula concentrated on setting a record for Most Resentment Communicated in a Single Expression.

The army of Ba Sing Se clearly didn't take the drill any more seriously than Azula did. She and Ty Lee dispatched the single platoon of earthbenders that came out to halt the drill's advance with so little effort it couldn't have been more than a token defense. Tiny milling specks gathered up on the battlements. Mai figured they were probably there to have a laugh watching the great and glorious Fire Nation break a giant (and expensive) toy on their ugly cliff of a wall.

The drill crawled onward.

Mai's attention wandered, chasing itself in figure eights. She wondered where Azula would drag them next. When this whole venture fell apart, Azula was sure to be enraged. Even though the princess fully expected it to fail. This was, after all, taking time away from the mission she had really wanted to pursue: chasing down the Avatar. And the fugitives. But Mai didn't want to think about Zuko, so she would watch the blank stone of the wall stretch up to fill the front windows. Dull yellowish-grey, in a landscape of dull yellowish-grey. It reminded her of Omashu, and Omashu reminded her of her family, and that got her wondering if Heizin Tom had ever got home safely. There had still been no word from her parents, though she'd gotten two hawks from Uncle Zoh. Perhaps their bird had been misdirected. On the other hand, no news was good news, right? And anyway, there was nothing she could do about that situation either, so she circled back again.

At last, the universe obligingly provided a distraction.

Giant boulders rained down from the wall, looking like marbles from the distant bridge of the drill. They bounced off the head of the drill without even leaving dents. Closer and closer the great machine crept. And then, with a grinding shudder that shook the bridge and its occupants, it finally reached its target.

"Congratulations, crew. The drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory!" The War Minister turned, smiling smugly, as the bridge crew cheered. Azula failed to be impressed.

"Don't count the dragonets yet, War Minister," the princess snapped. "We have yet to see if this venture will pay off."

Mai wasn't sure what would be worse for Qin: Azula's anger if it succeeded, or her anger if it failed. The princess prowled the bridge like a caged tigerdillo as the drill ground away at the wall, balancing effortlessly instead of grasping for something stable whenever the machine pushed forward. Though their faces were hidden by their helmets, the crew's tension as she marched around and peered over their shoulders at the dials and displays was obvious in their terse reports and the way their shoulders braced whenever she swept up behind them. Every time anything even remotely incidental happened, the War Minister had to placate the impatient royal. Mai began to speculate silently over whether it was possible to literally leap out of one's skin with impatience.

"What was that?" Azula snapped at one point, rounding on some hapless lieutenant.

"One of the steam pipes on Segment 2 has depressurized, your highness," the soldier repeated, more loudly.

Azula turned sharply. "Mai, Ty Lee—"

"Princess, small issues like this are completely normal on a machine of this size and complexity," Qin hastened to assure her. "It's nothing, I assure you. The engineers will attend to the problem. It will have absolutely no impact on the drill's performance."

Only his security in the Fire Lord's authority, Mai was sure, kept him from bursting into flame on the spot at the look Azula gave him. "Have the engineer report immediately when he has determined the source of the error!" she rapped out.

Unfortunately for Minister Qin, that report never came.

"War Minister! An engineer was ambushed! His schematics were stolen!" a com horn blared, followed immediately by another: "War Minister, a brace on the starboard side has been cut clean through! It's sabotage, sir!"

It was the cue Azula had been waiting for. With barely a glare for the mortified Qin, she was striding for the exit. "Let's go, ladies!"

"It has to be the Avatar. I knew he had to come to Ba Sing Se eventually. It is fate—my quarry has come to me!" she exulted as they ran down hallways and slid down ladders. "Not even the Avatar can evade me forever! We'll check the braces in Segment 2 first."

Azula's intuition was downright supernatural. It was indeed the Avatar, along with Ponytail and the Water Witch again, slicing through the one of the iron braces with some kind of water blade.

Maybe Azula was right, and it was fate.

For now, it was something to do.

The Avatar and his companions split up quickly—one of their favorite tactics, it seemed. Didn't they know by now it made them weaker divide their own forces? Azula ordered the two other girls after the Water Tribe children, claiming the Avatar for herself, which was fine with Mai.

This was a rematch she was ready for. No air monsters to help them now.

Their footsteps were as light as the paws of panther-wolves as they swung around corners and ducked low-hanging pipes, the flashes of blue leading them through the red-lit iron corridors. They were closing in. The Water Tribe pair dashed sideways, heading down a dead end. Grinning tightly, Mai let three darts drop to her hand. Rounding the corner, though, they found them not bracing themselves for an attack, but perched on one of the larger slurry pipes, the lid propped open.

No way. Surely they wouldn't—

Mai threw, too late. They ricocheted and threw sparks from the lid as the wide-eyed children dropped into the pipe with a gloppy splash. Their screams echoed off the metal walls, fading as they were washed away.

Nope.

"Ugh, disgusting!" Peering reluctantly into the pipe, Mai could faintly see the rush of musty-smelling sludge in the darkness below. Being wet was bad enough, but this? Gloppy, oozy mud in her hair, her sheathes, caking her knives, going up her nose and down her throat—

Nope.

"Come on, you heard Azula," Ty Lee said gamely. "We have to follow them."

Nope. Not worth it. They had to come out somewhere, or else they'd drown in the stuff. "She can shoot all the lightning she wants at me. I am _not _going in that wall sludge juice."

Shrugging, her _obviously mentally disturbed_ friend vaulted into the pipe, throwing up a huge splash of slurry. Trying hard not to imagine what it must be like in there, Mai shut the lid and twisted it tight again. They wouldn't be coming back out this way.

Unibrow had said all the pipes went to the same place—a giant outlet at the back of the drill. Mai raced down the corridor, following the pipe. Engineers and soldiers shouted and jumped out of her way, seeing the knives glinting between her knuckles. The slurry had looked like it was moving fast, probably far faster than she could run, but if she could just—

Her chase was halted by an inconvenient segment bulwark, which the pipe passed right through. Dead end.

Smoke and ash! Backtracking, Mai picked out a bulky engineer from a small cluster of armored men working at a bank of wheels and gauges. "You. Show me how to get to the back of the drill."

"Lady?" the startled man asked, looking to his fellows.

"Lady Mai, doesn't Princess Azula need you up in the br—" a soldier started carefully, when the slurry pipe beside them suddenly groaned.

"Pressure is rising on this line," some idiot by the gauge shouted, and continued, panic edging his voice, "Exponentially, sir!"

The entire drill shuddered, ramming forward again, making a few men lurch. The pipe creaked warningly.

Mai sighed. "The Avatar is on board," she explained. "He's got a water witch with him. She's probably stopped up the pipes. If you would show me how to get to the back—"

Without warning, the drill jolted sharply backward. Iron groaned and rumbled distantly and several people gasped or shouted as everyone stumbled. Mai shoved away an armored engineer who had fallen against her and crossly grabbed the nearest com-horn.

"Hello, War Minister," she said flatly. "Things are getting a bit noisy down here. Would you care to share what's going on?"

"The Avatar!" a tinny voice rang hysterically. Mai winced, leaning a little away from the com-horn. "The Princess is fighting the Avatar at the wall!"

"I was referring more to the drill falling apart."

Qin's shrill rambling, however, continued without addressing the topic, which was becoming more relevant to Mai by the second.

"Lady, a pipe in the drill head has burst," shouted one of the engineers, eyes popping as he read over the mysterious dials in front of him. Thank Agni not _all_ of them were complete ape-hogs.

"And where does the mud go when the pipes burst?" Mai asked pointedly, but the answer was obvious. Several pairs of nervous eyes darted to the slurry main beside them as it strained threateningly against the grid holding it in place. And she had _not _passed up jumping into a mere pipeful of goop just to drown in it anyway. "Open up the emergency sluices, then."

"My lady—only the War Minister can give that order—" the same engineer started.

"Ok. We'll just wait for him to put his head back on. And probably die."

"War Minister?" One of them shouted hopefully into the com-horn, but got no response before a shattering crash shook them again. The sounds of steel screaming and grinding, crashes sounding like giant pai sho tiles falling rushed louder and closer, making the deck and bulwarks jump and shudder.

"Do it!" Mai snapped. Men jumped to turn a giant red wheel, and everything went to hell.

All the lanterns died, leaving them in pitch-black darkness. A sloppy rush thundered overhead as tons of slurry burst through the emergency sluices, punctuated by metallic explosions all around them. Scalding steam billowed through the corridor, choking them, then the coughing was quickly cut through by screams and cries of alarm and ear-shattering clangs as the entire segment fell out of place. It felt like her stomach dropped with it. Mai clutched at a metal something or other in the darkness, feet slipping on the steam-slicked deck as armored bodies tumbled around and against her.

That would definitely bruise. If she lived. Mai sighed.

Then the bone-humming rumble of the drill stopped completely. The rasping sounds of steam and terrified panting filled the otherwise-silent darkness.

"Well, _that_ sure sounded like a resounding success. Anyone who's dead, speak up," Mai muttered, pulling herself back into a stable stance. "And if there's a firebender in here, make yourself useful."

A wavering orange light flickered to life over a trembling hand. Except for the fact that half the soldiers in the corridor were on the floor and nothing was actually running, everything pretty much appeared the way it had before all the crashing and darkness to Mai. Nothing in the immediate vicinity looked _too_ broken.

"You all keep doing whatever your job is on this amazing revolution of technology." Mai flicked a hand at the pale-faced firebender. "Show me how to get to the back door of this thing."

It was just a hunch, but Mai had a feeling the Avatar had gotten away again.


	14. Opportunities

**AN - ABundleOfDaydreams: not for several chapters. **

**Opportunities.**

It was a sorry show that limped back to the camp at Duzhou with its tail between its legs.

Repeated attempts to get the drill up and running again, either to retract it or push the rest of the way through the wall, had proved fruitless. Under cover of darkness, spies had been sent to examine the wreck and find if there was any way to get into Ba Sing Se around the drill. The head had actually penetrated the wall, after all. But ironically, that was the problem. The hole was plugged up completely by the solid-steel drill blade that had created it, like a cork in a rice wine bottle. A small child might have been able to crawl through, if he were careful, sliding on his belly on top of the machine, but the space certainly wasn't enough for an entire division of armored soldiers.

Everyone was disheartened. Even the irrepressible Ty Lee seemed a little down. The only exceptions were Azula, who was murderous; Qin, who was (quite validly) fearful for his life; and Mai, who hadn't expected anything anyway and who was getting a kick out of watching the War Minister cringe around like a whipped gopher-pup whenever the princess hove in view.

The War Minister's first priority was to get the drill operational and away from the wall, before the engineers of Ba Sing Se had the chance to dismantle it. After all, significantly more than a couple coppers had been invested into the thing, and it represented the cutting edge of Fire Nation technology. Just letting it fall into enemy hands like a ripe dragonheart was not an option.

But Azula had never been one to take 'not an option' for an answer. Her burnt amber eyes were set on one goal, and that goal had nothing to do with crazy engineering projects.

"The Avatar is inside Ba Sing Se right now," Azula railed at the War Minister the following evening, scattering a meeting he had been attempting to hold with his head engineers. One sharpened nail jabbed toward the city they'd retreated from. "_That _is our biggest threat. The Earth Kingdom capital has been an ostrich-horse with its head in the sand for decades. They have turned a blind eye to our growing strength and stupidly denied it. Their weakness is our advantage, and that advantage is about to be lost. The Avatar stirs up the mud people wherever he goes. If he stirs up the armies of the Earth King, our victory in this war will be pushed back another generation. Tell me, Minister, are you an idiot or are you a traitor?"

War Minister Qin bowed until his hooked nose practically scraped the ground, speaking rapidly, as though he could somehow eke in enough logic to sway her while she was drawing breath between rants. "Princess, if we can just remove the drill, the wall—"

"Do not mention that fiasco to me." Sparks actually crackled around her fists, making Ty Lee and Mai exchange a glance. Azula _never _lost control. "I do not want to hear about your many and various failures. Our target is the Avatar, and if you fail me again—"

"We're obviously _really_ useful right now," Mai murmured to her friend, who was clearly more than happy to slip out of the tent with her.

No sense in surviving a giant iron drill falling apart around her just to get accidentally charred to a crisp in one of Azula's fits of pique.

-o-

"Ma'am?"

Mai looked up from breakfast the next morning to find herself presented with a veritable bouquet of small scroll cases. "…What's all this?"

"Several hawks just came in, redirected from Daku Kan. From the Governor of New Ozai, Lady."

Her voice stayed even, even as her stomach dove to the ground. "Oh, joy. At last, the latest news from the most exciting city in the world."

In the privacy of the tent she was sharing with Ty Lee, Mai stacked the scrolls in a nice, neat pile, with every intention of going through them methodically. Her mother had apparently been writing her letters every three or four days, so there were far too many of them. They were all jumbled out of order and almost completely devoid of relevant content, mostly addressing the weather and her campaign to make the palace in Omashu look halfway civilized. Blah, blah, _blah_. Mai skimmed the first, then scanned through the next few impatiently without even trying to read them, willing the one character she was interested in to pop out at her.

It was not until the fourth that she found what she was looking for among the florid descriptions of curtains and cushions:

_Tom-Tom learned another new word today: 'up'! I wish you could be here to hear him, Mai…._

The letter crumpled in her hands as they clenched involuntarily, her breath sticking in her throat. Dropping it, she quickly shuffled through the rest, tossing the stupid, empty things aside until she finally found what must have been the first message Mother had sent. It was dated from the very evening of her escape from Omashu.

_My dearest daughter,_

_It's a miracle! Our little Tom-Tom has been returned to us. We can only guess that the Avatar had gotten what he wanted from us and…_

All this time, and the slobbery little brat had been safe at home all along! Ridiculous, stupid _brat, _with his ridiculous stupid nickname. How typical. Consciously unclenching her jaw, Mai rolled up every letter and carefully slotted them into their cases.

By the time she was done her hands had stopped trembling.

Shoving the half-read letters into her bag, Mai got up and went to go look for Ty Lee and see if she wanted to train for a bit. Her hands and arms were strangely light. She felt like she could spar the Avatar himself and come out on top right now.

-o-

Ty Lee seemed a little miffed to be dragged away from the off-duty soldiers she was cheering up. Mai wasn't too thrilled herself when those same soldiers gathered to watch, cheering them on and taking bets and generally making loud, obnoxious nuisances of themselves.

"Come on, let's go practice outside this wretched camp," Mai finally said, rolling her eyes.

"What's up with you?" Ty Lee asked, easily keeping up with her light run through the camp.

It had been forest, once, the trees cut down to build the palisade around the slapped-together outpost. Outside the palisade, beyond a tangled field of rocks and stumps, what was left of the forest still stood. Perfect. They didn't have forests like this in the rocky, tropical islands of the Fire Nation, and Azula's quest hadn't yet given them a chance to really experiment with their skills in this environment. It hadn't occurred to her to come out here before the drill, and she wished she had. It was a relief to be away from the stench of the camp, a stomach-turning blend of unwashed bodies, oily smoke, and the old-sweat-and-leather stink of armor.

"Nothing. We used to spar all the time. I've got nothing better to do and neither do you," Mai replied breathlessly, coming to a halt and scoping out a small clearing near the edge of the wood that looked like an okay spot. Not too overgrown, but not too easy either, with a large outcropping of rock at one side that presented some interesting possibilities.

"Seriously, Mai, Azula and everyone else is so upset about the drill, but you actually seem like you're in a good mood about it," Ty Lee said, stopping in the middle of the clearing and propping her hands on her pink-ruffled hips. Her voice grew suspicious, and dropped a little lower. "Is this because Azula's not interested in chasing Zuko anymore?"

If that had occurred to her, she hadn't let it get past mere occurrence. "I'm bored, and I'm sick of being surrounded by smelly, clanking soldiers. I'm glad to _not_ be surrounded by smelly, clanking soldiers for two seconds."

"Well…if you say so," said Ty Lee, the suspicion evaporating like dew under the sun. After all, she liked combat just as much as Mai did.

The girls fought until the sun had climbed high. Holding back took more effort than real battle, in Mai's opinion; she had to be careful not to actually hit Ty Lee with any of her darts, and her friend never pulled any of her chi-blocking moves on her. Still, it felt good.

"This was a great idea, Mai," Ty Lee said, bouncing around the edge of a clearing like a rabbaroo, helping her collect the knives and darts stuck in the trees and ground. "It's too bad Azula is so busy! She could probably use –"

Ty Lee gasped, making Mai look up. "What?"

The other girl was leaning into a large, tangled bank of bushes, reaching to pluck at something Mai couldn't see. She straightened, then turned to Mai, a smile of impossible dimensions blooming across her face. Jumping with excitement, Ty Lee squealed something so loudly and incoherently that Mai couldn't make out a single word.

"_What_?" Mai repeated, pacing over to see what could possibly be so great. Knowing Ty Lee, it could be a strand of spiderwasp silk or a bit of ribbon or—anything, really.

But it wasn't something pretty or shiny that had caught her friend's eye. Held taut between her pinched fingers was a tangled, filthy skein of hair.

No, not hair. Fur. Fur that Mai would recognize anywhere, having chased trails of it half across a continent.

"Bison fur," Ty Lee giggled. "Boy, Azula is going to be so happy to see this!"

-o-

Success was a heady thing.

Even success against such gaudy, overdressed dolls. The Kiyoshi warriors, as they identified themselves, were far less ridiculous with that awful rainbow facepaint wiped off , even stripped down to their shifts, disarmed, and bound. In full regalia they looked like stage actors from a particularly insipid tragedy. All tradition, no practicality. Ugh.

Mai idly sharpened her knives in the entrance of the tent while keeping half an eye on the sorry lot of them. Immobilized and tied up for good measure, separated from their leader, and defeated, the Kiyoshi warriors were silent and subdued. Dimly, she could make out the muffled sound of Azula's voice rising and falling like a flame in the next tent over. One by one, the prisoners were being interrogated. Their leader had refused to speak a word, as had the first two Azula had taken. Judging by how long the princess had had this one, and the relatively short pauses in her voice—pauses just long enough for a low answer, and not the long, patient, pressuring silences that she had weighed on her prior victims—this one was finally singing.

Tracking down the bison had been easy. Why the beast was separated from its master was a mystery still, but what had ultimately mattered to Azula was that the Avatar would come for it. But even when bison had escaped, Azula seemed happy nonetheless. There was something else up her sleeve.

(Which was good. Mai had not at all been sorry to see the monster go, and had not been looking forward to chasing it down again.)

At last Azula emerged from the red-tasseled tent, a satisfied smirk stamped on her face. A female lieutenant followed after, dragging a downcast prisoner with tears streaked down her cheeks. The stink of singed hair made Mai wrinkle her nose as the soldier shoved the girl into the tent to join her fellows.

"Come on, Mai. We've got work to do," Azula ordered with a curt gesture. "You there, fetch Ty Lee and War Minister Qin! I have a plan."

War Minister Qin did not like the plan. Mai was sure that was probably a bonus in the princess's eyes.

"Princess," he started hesitantly. He was already on shaky ground with the princess. "Perhaps if some of my firebenders accompanied you as well—"

"I don't give orders so that they can be debated, Minister. I give them to be followed. Mai and Ty Lee will be perfectly adequate. You and _all_ of your soldiers will remain encamped here until I return."

The hapless man struggled for a moment with himself. Self-preservation finally won out over pride. "Yes, Your Highness," he said resignedly. "What would you have us do with your war prisoners?"

"War prisoners?" Azula looked around with feigned surprise. "_What_ war prisoners, War Minister?"

Ty Lee shifted nervously beside her, biting her lip, and Mai shot her a quelling glance.

"I don't recall taking any prisoners of war. Perhaps you are referring to the criminals we apprehended. Have them separated. I want their leader sent to Boiling Rock and the others scattered in small groups among the other capital prisons, on charges of aiding and abetting the enemy."

It was only logical, of course, even if Azula was stretching the definition. War prisoners had to be announced to the leaders of the enemy, in the event that they might be wanted as diplomatic leverage. Now that she had her key into Ba Sing Se, it would have been foolish of Azula to trumpet it. By the way Ty Lee relaxed, Mai wondered if she thought Azula would have just had them executed on the spot.

Even Azula wouldn't be _that _ruthless. At least, Mai preferred to assume that.

"Come along, ladies. We have a lot of preparations to make."

-o-

The people of the Earth Kingdom, Mai was more convinced than ever, were sexist bigots when it came to clothing. Gowns and robes were a thing for the court and ceremony, not everyday wear, certainly not for fighting in. The dresses they'd been forced to don while undercover were drab and uncomfortable—scratchy wools, nothing like the light, loose layers of linen and silk worn in the tropical Fire Nation. But this, this was just ridiculous. Mai supposed she could have dealt with just the under-dress, even though it was an ugly color and not nearly as easy to move in as her trews. But with the stiff woolen overdress and then the armor on top of that—it was the clothing equivalent, Mai thought, of that stupid drill. Too big, too heavy, too overworked, and not at all useful.

And the _makeup_.

"They don't get enough of mud just trudging around in it all day? They have to smear it on their faces too?" she sighed as Ty Lee carefully applied white clay-paint to her cheeks, tongue between her teeth.

"Makes sense, they are the _mud_ people," Ty Lee giggled. She dabbed a finger into the daub of hideously bright red. "Close your eyes so I don't get any makeup in them."

Mai complied with a grimace. "I just don't get why fighters would weigh themselves down with all this _junk_."

"Their little troupe is probably mostly ceremonial," Azula said. She was staring into a copper mirror, drawing on her own makeup with single-minded focus. "They would provide little or no tactical advantage to an army. They're not even benders."

Mai opened her eyes just in time to catch the flicker of irritation that passed over Ty Lee's face, mirroring her own thoughts. Then it vanished, outshined by another broad grin.

"I kind of like their costumes though!" Ty Lee wriggled a bit in her seat, making her armor squeak. "They're so bundly. I feel like I'm in a cuddly little cocoon! And this paint is so bright and colorful."

"Even though it's not pink?" Mai said sourly.

"Well of course, pink would make it better! Pink makes everything better!"

"Ugh."

"Stop whining, Mai. Their barbarism is our advantage," Azula snapped. "These primitive uniforms will make it far easier to get close to the Avatar unrecognized."

-o-

The great Gate of Ba Sing Se was less like a gate, and more like a great foyer. An entire military and customs post was set into the towering wall. There was no permanent gate arch on the outside; rather, mudbenders opened up doorways for people to enter as needed. Many small passageways on the opposite side allowed entrance to wagons and herd-drivers to the country highways criss-crossing the farm plains that supported the urban center, and high above the floor train cars ground along stone tracks that too take passengers straight to the heart of the city itself. The similarity to Omashu was depressing. The stone walls and columns were stark, meagerly decorated here and there with green and brown banners. Size, rather than artistry or comfort, seemed to be the sole aesthetic priority of Earth Kingdom architects.

Mai already hated Ba Sing Se.

The place was almost empty, except for guards and customs officials. Unsurprisingly, few people came to the gates on this side. It probably had something to do with the hostile army camped two days' march away. But just as Azula had predicted, their costumes were the perfect disguise. Nobody barred their approach or attacked as they rode across the barren plain to the Gates on requisitioned ostrich-horses, and though the guards seemed unpleasantly surprised to have visitors, they were let into the Gate after they had shown their stolen passports and a cursory search. Rather than suspicious, the officials seemed distracted, frazzled, and out of sorts, as though the entrance of the three "Kiyoshis" were one more inconvenience in an already hectically busy day.

In addition to giving them enough background information on their home and ways for the three Fire Nation nobles to convincingly play the part of Kiyoshi warriors, Azula's little informant had been generous enough to share that Avatar Aang had in fact visited their island several months previous, and that their leader was a personal friend of his. The princess made sure to drop his name at the first opportunity she got. The moment she did, she had the full attention of the officials, and their air of irritated distraction evaporated.

As it turned out, their timing was so lucky as to defy coincidence.

Evidently the Avatar and his little friends were just as disruptive among their allies as they were to the Fire Nation. Earlier that very day they had thrown the place into chaos as effectively as if they had thrown a boulder into a tiger-ant nest. As far as they could gather, there had been some sort of conspiracy against the King, exposed by the Avatar. The ringleaders had been deposed, and now the entire government was being turned upside down and inside out to shake out any conspirators and traitors that might be hiding in the woodwork. Every soldier and civil worker was being questioned, their backgrounds double-checked. All of this was related to them by a pale-faced official who made sure to assert his own loyalty to the Earth Kingdom and his joy that these traitors had been unearthed at every opportunity, as they waited for messengers to go confirm their identities with the Avatar.

Confirmation came swiftly. Just like that, the princess of the Fire Nation and her two companions were escorted into the Impenetrable City.

-o-

Princess Azula's plan was fairly straightforward, for Azula. Once inside the city, they would request audience with the Avatar, claiming an important message for his ears alone. The three of them would easily overpower the child, and then they would smuggle him out of the city disguised as peasants and rejoin Qin's forces.

They should have known their run of luck couldn't last—or, at least, that the Avatar's was better, as usual.

Upon arrival to the Palace (which was no less blocky or graceless than the rest of the city), there was a brief official greeting by the Earth King, and then they were brought to report to the Commander of the Royal Guard as visiting military personnel. The three young women exchanged bows with the tall, ascetic-looking man, whose armor appeared just as ceremonial and useless as their own. "The Avatar and his comrades have spoken highly of your skills in battle. Your support in our time of need is well received, Lady…?"

"Suki. I am the leader of the Kiyoshi Warriors. My rank is equivalent to Commandant, sir," Azula said. Her usually imperious air was seamlessly replaced by one of respectful but businesslike briskness. "We rejoice that our insignificant efforts may be of service to His Royal Majesty."

The official pleasantries went on at length. Mai stifled a yawn. Not only would it have been inappropriate, but it would probably crack her facepaint. The last thing she needed was flakes of the stuff falling off like dandruff.

At last they got to the point.

"We are honored by the Earth King's hospitality, sir," Azula said smoothly, in response to the offer of accommodations in the Palace compound. "Before retiring, however, we have news of great import for the Avatar, regarding some of his friends in Kiyoshi. We could not take rest knowing we delayed in passing on their messages."

"I'm afraid I must offer apologies in his place, Commandant Suki," the commander said, bowing again slightly. "The Avatar and most of his companions departed today, to carry out tasks vital to our victory in the war against the Fire Nation."

Not a single twitch betrayed the princess's dismay, but Mai and Ty Lee couldn't help but exchange a glance.

"We expect his return in a week. If your messages are of tactical importance, the Council of Five will hear you with great interest," the commander went on.

"No, sir, the news we bring is of a personal nature," Azula said smoothly. "We will await Avatar Aang with great eagerness."

Mai sighed internally. Who knew how long they'd be stuck in this overgrown rock garden now?

"In that case, may the spirits speed his journey. In the meantime, there are many preparations being made in Ba Sing Se to support the Avatar's efforts against the Fire Nation, and to shore up security here, in light of recent events. The Earth King himself has requested that you accompany him as his personal bodyguards."

Yet more deep bows were exchanged all around. "His Majesty overwhelms us with his regard."

-o-

Azula had exaggerated. His Majesty was many things, but overwhelming was not among them.

Princess Azula, her father Firelord Ozai, both had an aura of power about them. Even Zuko had had it, to a lesser, more approachable extent. Of course,there was something about knowing someone could turn one into a lump of charcoal with little more than a thought and a flick of their hand that tended to inspire obedience and respect. But beyond that, there was a certain level of attention that Mai had come to expect in leaders. An alertness, some attitude of constant evaluation and calculation, of—well, _competence_. They were warriors and commanders, and when they spoke, it was with authority and confidence in the knowledge that they were not only perfectly capable of backing up that authority, but knew what to do with it.

The Earth King, by comparison, looked like a bookworm. It was the silly-looking glasses, Mai thought, that really did it—they were so tiny that he squinted myopically over and around them at anything more than three paces away from his long nose, and crossed his eyes at anything closer. Even the bizarre-looking "bear" that shared the dais of the throne room didn't dispel his distinctly scholarly manner.

The impression of weakness did not end with his appearance.

"Look Bosco, the Kyoshi Warriors are here to protect us," the bookworm said in much the same affected tone Mother liked to use when baby-talking to Heizin. He even pinched the creature's fat cheeks the same annoying way she did to the baby. "Aren't you excited?"

Bosco the bear yawned. Mai found herself quite in agreement with the animal's response. Kneeling on the stone floor was making her knees sore, and listening to this hack of a king blather on like a particularly stupid toddler was making her knives itch. The cities of the Earth Kingdom had to be run largely by the bureaucracy, Mai guessed. Of course she'd only met two so far, but it seemed to be some kind of requirement that their kings be mentally unbalanced. How they had lasted this long against the Fire Nation's advances was a mystery.

"It's been a difficult week for me," he whined. "My most trusted advisor, Long Feng, and his Dai Li agents tried to take control of Ba Sing Se from me."

The notion that this man had ever had control over anything was laughable, but Azula replied with a seriousness that should have earned her a medal. "It's terrible when you can't trust the people who are closest to you."

Mai had to bite the inside of her mouth at that.

Without even acknowledging her ironic response, the kinglet rambled on. "But there is good news. As we speak, the Council of Five is meeting to plan an invasion of The Fire Nation this summer! On the day of a solar eclipse."

Mai couldn't see the princess's face, but she could well imagine the real root of her enthusiasm as she replied with interest. "Really? Now that sounds like a fascinating and brilliant plan."

Azula continued to tease out the details of the planned invasion and the inner workings of the Dai Li from the bookworm—not that it took much effort on her part. The idiot didn't seem to grasp the notion of prudence; he wouldn't have lasted three hours in the Fire Nation court. The only real digressions he ever made from the princess's careful steering were inane comments about Bosco's likes, dislikes, habits, and history. By the time the bookworm decided he was quite worn out and ready to retire for the evening, Mai had more or less made up her mind that if any assassins or conspirators _had_ come into the throne room to attack him, she probably would have just sat and watched. Or helped.

-o-

Azula was restless. Unsurprising, considering how much new information the talkative king had gifted them with. It seemed all but one of the Avatar's companions had left on various errands, and meant to return within the week. The only one left was the water witch, who was preoccupied in assisting the Council of Five. ('Katara', Mai had to remind herself, and her brother was 'Sokka'. Trying to pronounce the odd names made Mai feel like her mouth was full of pebbles.) Not only that, but he had gone into great detail on the plans of the army, which apparently were much clearer to Azula than they were to Mai. As soon as she had cleaned the Kiyoshi makeup off, she paced around their new quarters with her "plotting face" stamped on like a scowling mask.

"I hope the Avatar gets back from running errands soon," Mai grumbled. "If I have to listen to that clod go on about his _bear_ for another day…."

"Really? I think he's kind of funny. I never realized spying was so easy," Ty Lee said brightly. "It's almost like the king is _trying _to help us!"

"That's because he's an idiot. The Earth King's line is notoriously inbred," Mai pointed out. Her friend had caked the paint more thickly on her face than she had realized. Already she had gone through two large hand-towels trying to get it all off. "His sister's his cousin. And so are two of his wives. What do you expect?"

"That can't be true, really? How do you even know that?"

"While you were in the circus, I was at court with nothing better to do than listen to courtiers and ministers gossip with Mother," Mai pointed out.

Ty Lee shuddered a little. "Boy. This place would probably be a lot better off following the Firelord."

"You're absolutely right for once, Ty Lee," Azula said, apparently reaching some conclusion at last and coming out of plotting mode. "We have been presented with an extraordinary opportunity, girls."

Ty Lee grinned. "Mai finally gets to wear makeup that's not totally depressing?"

"Ha. Ha."

The princess ignored them. "I'm talking about conquering the whole Earth Kingdom._"_

Startled, Mai turned to stare at her friend. If it were anyone else, she would have questioned her hearing. The heir to the Fire Nation throne had stopped at the round window with her hands clasped behind her back, gazing out at the city of her enemies as if she already ruled it. "For a hundred years the Fire Nation has hammered away at Ba Sing Se from the outside. But now we are on the inside, and we can take it by ourselves."

"Gosh, you're so confident," Ty Lee commented. "I really admire that about you."

"From the inside we're in the perfect position to organize a coup and overthrow the Earth King," the princess went on without acknowledging the compliment. "The key is the Dai Li. Whoever controls the Dai Li, controls Ba Sing Se." She turned and smirked at them. "By the time the Avatar returns, there will be no need to smuggle him out to the army here like burglars. In a week, we could have the entire city under occupation. He'll be flying right into our hands." Azula paused. "Poor Qin will be so disappointed when he finds out he missed the invasion of Ba Sing Se."


	15. Coup d'etat

**Coup d'état**

"...You want us to just go out there and yell that we're Fire Nation?"

"Just be yourself, Mai. Go out there and complain. Loudly," Azula said, waving off her skepticism. "Trust me, if the Dai Li have been working against the Earth King for as long as has been reported, simply arresting their leader changes nothing. There are more secret police in a single block of Ba Sing Se at any given moment than there are in the entire Fire Nation capital. You will certainly be heard, and it will be back to Long Feng within the hour."

Mai scowled. The source of her irritation had less to do with the princess's plan to recruit the Dai Li to her cause, and more with the fact that she had a new faceful of makeup and another day of listening to the Earth King blather to look forward to after this little performance. But that didn't mean she liked the plan either.

"Come on, Mai, it'll be fun. I've always wanted to try acting," Ty Lee said enthusiastically.

The whole show felt frightfully staged to Mai. The gaudy Kiyoshi costume did nothing to dispel the feeling that she had been cast in a bad play. The reason for her deep distaste for the heavy makeup suddenly snapped into place in her mind as she recalled the mind-numbing hours she'd endured in the theatre while her mother wept through overemotional renditions of _Flame Eternal: the Tale of Mushan Ra_ and _In the Embers of Love_.

Azula, however, seemed confident that the ruse had worked. "Good work, girls," she said, coming up to the pair and glancing around overhead. Mai looked covertly upward too, half-expecting to see a green-garbed spy hanging from the ceiling like an overgrown spiderfrog. "I'm sure the Dai Li will deliver the message. We should expect to hear from this Long Feng sometime in the next day or two."

-o-

The Earth King (and the Royal Bear), it turned out, were both heavy sleepers, in the habit of rising late and retiring early. With the exception of a few hours in the afternoon when His Royal Laziness saw fit to come lounge on his oversized chair and talk to his freakshow pet, the "Kiyoshi warriors" had the honor of guarding an empty room for most of the day.

In case someone made off with the throne cushions, Mai supposed.

Ty Lee tried to strike up conversation a few times, only to be curtly reprimanded by Azula. The Fire Princess had a lot on her mind. Unsurprising, given that she was planning to do opportunistically in the next couple days what her father, uncle, and grandfather had been struggling to do for the last couple generations. Attempting to slide in this kind of one-in-a-million victory only months before the coming of Sozin's comet, the opportunity the armies had been waiting for for years now, was just like Azula.

Not for the first time, Mai meditated on the practically supernatural luck that seemed to scurry around after the princess like some particularly fickle spirit, and tried not to be overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of what they had set in motion.

The patter of wild footsteps broke into her thoughts. Mai looked up to find a familiar figure in blue running toward them: the Avatar's water witch, Katara.

A jolt of pure adrenaline slipped down her spine. Azula made no move yet, though so Mai sat as perfectly still as she could (which was pretty darn still, as she'd had plenty of practice over the years). Time for a real test of their disguises.

Remarkably, they held.

"Thank goodness you're here, Suki," Katara gasped. The waterbender was out of breath, as though she'd run through the entire Palace to get here. "Something terrible is going on. The Fire Nation has infiltrated the city—"

Had the Dai Li exposed them after all? Mai glanced at Ty Lee, who tensed to spring.

"—I just saw Prince Zuko and his Uncle! We have to tell the Earth King right away!"

Azula rose smoothly to her feet, even as Mai suddenly felt as though she were paralyzed.

"Oh, don't worry," Azula drawled. "I'll be sure to let him know."

The waterwitch realized her mistake too late. Before she could get into a proper attacking stance, Ty Lee had immobilized her. Shaking off the numb feeling that had settled over her, Mai rose to follow Azula as they gathered around their new prisoner. Water dribbled out of a pouch at her belt, leaving the shocked girl staring up at them from a puddle of her own element.

"So, Zu Zu's in the city too. I think it's time for a family reunion," Azula purred. "For now, though, we'd better put our guest somewhere where she can have some privacy. Why don't you ladies make her comfortable in our quarters."

Katara opened her mouth, probably to shout for help. Mai let a stiletto fall to her hand. "I wouldn't," she advised.

"Gag her," Azula said, bending to pick up a scroll the waterbender had dropped. "And make absolutely sure she's secure." Quizzically, she unrolled the scroll and skimmed it. Her eyes widened visibly. Then her mouth curled into an unbearably smug shape, and she rolled it tightly back up, tucking it into the back of her belt. "We'll have to find some way to reward her later for her _all_ of her help," Azula added, making Katara growl and lunge at her.

Or, rather, growl and twitch in her general direction.

Mai and Ty Lee dragged the glaring bender through the halls with her arms slung over their shoulders, which looked at least somewhat less suspicious than carrying her by her wrists and ankles. With her chi blocked, she hung bonelessly between them, wiggling her fingers and growling furiously against the headband they'd stuffed in her mouth.

They took away her waterskin and bound her tightly with strips Mai cut from the spare sheets (taking no small amount of pleasure in the small act of vandalism).

"We can't just leave her like this. What if she gets loose, or a servant hears her?" Ty Lee scratched her head quizzically.

"Drug her," Mai suggested. "Find the Palace apothecary and tell him one of us is having trouble sleeping at night. Then we can just put her to bed. Azula will come up with something better for long term."

Still gagged, the water witch's hot blue eyes burned like poison. It served her right, in Mai's opinion. There'd been no love lost between them anyway, but after leading them on a wild turtleduck chase all over the Earth Kingdom, this Katara girl had finally managed to get under her skin. She'd finally put the prince from her mind again, and this peasant squealer had to drag him right on back to her attention—and Azula's. _Thanks a lot_, she found herself thinking, glaring right back.

"Good idea! Say, we're getting pretty good at this undercover stuff, aren't we?"

-o-

The Dai Li came a little after midnight.

They were reasonably quiet. Mai probably wouldn't have heard them if she hadn't been awake anyway. Every sound ground against her nerves—the creak of cicadas, the hush of wind around stone buildings, the periodic distant clanking and calls of the ceremonial Palace Guard changing watches in the courtyard below, the rustling of sheets whenever Ty Lee shifted beside her, and the breathing of both her friends and their prisoner, drugged up and arranged in a convincing sleeping pose in Ty Lee's bed.

If they weren't in hostile territory, Mai would have been tempted to take some of the powdered root they'd fed Katara herself.

The scrape of leather boots on the stone windowsill and the faint creak of armor was a welcome distraction. Slitting her eyes almost closed and breathing slowly, Mai watched the two round-helmeted shadows steal across the room to Azula's bed. The scuffle was brief. The princess pretended to struggle just enough to be believable but not long enough to prolong things.

Spiriting people away in the dead of night was evidently old hat for the Dai Li. In less than two minutes after creeping through the window, the agents were gone with the Fire Princess.

Mai counted out five breaths as their footsteps faded down the hall. Then Ty Lee flipped over to face her, her grin gleaming in the dim moonlight. "It worked!" she whispered excitedly. "Things are going just like Azula planned!"

"Yeah," Mai agreed, pretending to be sleepy. She hadn't realized Ty Lee had been awake, and didn't really feel like talking right now.

Subtle hints weren't exactly Ty Lee's strong point, however. "Do you think they'll be back soon?"

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. How was she supposed to know? She wasn't going to worry about Azula until the sun started rising without her return.

"I think this is actually going to work. We're actually going to conquer this giant city with just three people." Ty Lee stifled a giggle with one hand. "Too bad, the Earth King has such a nice aura. Do you think Azula would let me keep Bosco?"

"…Why would you want to?"

"He's so fluffy and friendly! He reminds me of the platypus-bears at Brighttop. I could train him to dance and do somersaults."

Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you'd like him if you gave him a chance." Ty Lee propped herself up on one elbow, squinting in the darkness to make sure Katara was still unconscious. "Soooo," she said, taking on that catty look that almost always prefaced some incredibly annoying statement. "What do you think Zuko's doing right now?"

Mai curled deeper into the blankets, frowning. Of all the everything she didn't want to talk about, that was the last. "Well, _most_ people sleep in the middle of the night."

"It's such a weird coincidence that he's here too, right when we are," Ty Lee mused. "It's like destiny."

"There's no such thing as destiny," Mai said flatly. "And it's not that weird. It's the biggest city in the world. _Everyone_ in the Mud Kingdom with nowhere better to be is stuck here."

"You're such a killjoy sometimes. Azula wrote in that fake summons that they should come tomorrow. That's so soon. Aren't you excited to see him again?"

"I don't care one way or the other."

"Uh-huh. Is that why you've been tossing and turning all night?"

Sighing, Mai rolled to turn her back on Ty Lee. "It's these scratchy blankets. It's like lying on a pile of sparkthistles."

"It's at least a hundred times more comfy than sleeping on the ground, and you slept fine when we were doing that. Why don't you ever want to talk about Zuko?"

"I haven't seen him in years. I have nothing to say about him."

Ty Lee's voice dropped slightly. "You're worried Azula's going to do something terrible to him, aren't you."

That had crossed her mind.

"Come on, Mai. It'll be fine. He's her _brother_. If Azula can take down the whole Earth Kingdom, I'm sure she can figure out a way to get Zuko back home in one piece."

Wrong. There was only one throne, after all, and willingness to share had never been a noteworthy characteristic of Azula's personality.

"You're right, Ty Lee. When Zuko and his uncle fall for Azula's trap, she'll probably just invite him back and have a big party, and the Firelord will pardon him and redact his banishment, and everything will be exactly like it was," she deadpanned.

"Hah. You _are_ worried. You still like him, don't you?" Ty Lee said triumphantly.

She sighed through her teeth. Why couldn't anyone ever just leave her alone? "Think what you want. It doesn't matter."

"You'd feel better if you talked about it," she wheedled.

No, Mai was pretty sure she wouldn't. "I'm going to sleep."

"Two seconds ago you said you couldn't sleep on these blankets."

Mai closed her eyes and ignored her friend.

-o-

When Azula returned, she was not being dragged by the Dai Li agents. She was leading them. (Surprise, surprise.) With a flick of her hand, the lamps flared to life.

"_Azula_!" Horrified, Mai yanked the covers to her chin.

"Keep it down, Mai," the princess snapped. "You'll wake someone up. It's the middle of the night."

"Oh, is _that_ why it gets all dark?"

"Don't be such a prude," Ty Lee laughed. "You're wearing a shift _and_ a nightrobe. Hello," she said, turning a coquettish look on the Dai Li. They both flushed awkwardly.

"Not now, Ty Lee," Azula said curtly. "Both of you get up and get dressed immediately. We and our new allies have work to do."

"I will, as soon as _they_ go wait in the sitting room," Mai grated, as Ty Lee practically flounced out of bed in her shift. It didn't even reach to her _knees_.

Azula rolled her eyes, but made a commanding gesture to the two men who had invaded their bedroom. "We captured the Avatar's waterbender earlier today. Take her on your way out. Is there somewhere secure but unofficial we can store her without the Palace Guard running across her?" She followed them and stood in the doorway, tossing a look back at Mai as though to say, _happy now_?

No, not particularly. Grudgingly, Mai slid out of bed and grabbed her Kiyoshi garb.

"The Palace is built on top of the Old City and the Catacombs, La—Your Highness," one of the agents replied. They seemed a little uncomfortable addressing the princess. "There are still large portions of it intact but unused. We could seal her in a cave for now."

"Perfect. Take her away. Don't damage her—we may find a use for her later." Azula tapped her lip thoughtfully. "The Old Palace, you say? Is the old throne room still intact?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Full armor and makeup, ladies," Azula said decisively. "Stop sighing, Mai. Have the squad commanders of the Dai Li form up in the old throne room, then come back to take us there. And bring me a Dai Li uniform. We must make sure the city is absolutely secure by the time the Avatar returns. The sooner we take the Palace, the more time the army will have to secure the lower rings. I want the Earth King deposed by dinner tomorrow."

-o-

It was unfortunate that her stupid brain had kept her up during the few hours that she might have slept last night. They never made it back to bed. The small hours of the morning were spent 'conspirating', as Ty Lee put it. There was a lot to do: preparing the Dai Li for the idea of a coup, figuring out what individuals of the Earth King's cabinet and ranking officials needed to be secured and when, drawing up time tables and backup plans in case anything went wrong, and various other loose ends. They'd only gone back to their quarters long enough to freshen up their facepaint and have "standing breakfast".

Standing breakfast was one thing while camping, but somehow it was more galling when they were in a Palace with a perfectly well-stocked (if unimaginative) kitchen.

Now Mai and Ty Lee were standing guard at one entrance to the little-used Ambassadorial Wing of the Palace, on the off chance that a curious servant might hear any strange noises and interrupt Azula's plans. The Princess and the lieutenants of the Dai Li had decided the old Fire Nation Suite would be the most convenient stage for one of those "loose ends": rounding up the rogue Fire Nation General and his wayward nephew. According to the Dai Li, nobody ever went there except once or twice a year to sweep up the dust and cobwebs. They were the first Fire Nation "representatives" to enter the Fire Nation Ambassador's suite in over 80 years.

Oh, the irony.

The crash of earthbending sounded distantly, echoing down the hall. She rather congratulated herself on not even flinching or looking that way, but her stomach clenched.

"Oh good, it sounds like they're wrapping up," Ty Lee said, dropping into a backbend to look down the empty hall. "I hope Azula sends us back to the throne room with Bosco."

Ty Lee got her wish. A few minutes later Azula strode up to meet them, sans the four Dai Li she'd left with. "Zuko has been apprehended. General Iroh got away, but he didn't even let Dum-Dum out of his sight to be banished. He's sure to be back. You girls make sure the Earth King is secure while the Dai Li and I take out his retainers and generals." Azula tapped thoughtfully on her lip and lowered her voice. "We have to be quick on our feet today. Some of the lieutenants just went to free Long Feng. He'll try to be trouble." The princess rolled her eyes at that. "The Dai Li understand this coup is vital to their interests at the moment, but they may balk at a full occupation." Scowling, she concluded, "I want you two to stay clear today as much as is practical. Report to the throne room and stay there until I say otherwise. Keep up your disguises as long as you can, but make sure the Earth King doesn't budge until we're ready. Tell him 'Suki' is still out with Katara.""

The two girls exchanged dismayed looks. "We're just babysitting the Mud King during the whole coup?" Mai repeated. They were finally doing something exciting, something that could keep her mind off of things, and Azula wanted them to just sit it out? It wasn't fair.

"I'll need both of you to hold down this city until the army gets here, so I want you both in top form later," Azula explained brusquely. "There aren't many pieces on the board on our side, but it's just barely enough to work with. Unless we're very lucky, I'll probably need to make use of Zuzu too."

"What makes you think Zuko would help?" Mai asked, carefully neutral.

"Simple. I can offer him the one thing he wants more than anything," Azula smirked. "Come on, I have things to do. I don't have all morning to listen to you complain."

-o-

The Earth King accepted their claim that Suki and Katara had gone to the spas without question, though he had plenty of excited questions about how the three of them had spent the morning. He didn't get out much. The overgrown child enjoyed listening to the tales of their wild escapades in Ba Sing Se as much as Ty Lee enjoyed making them up. Mai counted tiles on the ceiling and tried not to wonder where Azula had stashed her brother while the Earth King swallowed one outrageous story after another.

"That reminds me," he said suddenly, perking up. "Your other friends are back!"

For a split second Ty Lee was thrown for a loop, but she quickly rebounded, replying brightly as Mai actually started listening to their exchange. "All of them? Where did they go?"

"Yes, it was Aang, Sokka, and Toph," the king said, ticking them off on his long fingers. "They probably went to the house where they had been staying to find Suki and Katara."

Ty Lee met Mai's blank face with a taut grin that looked like it had been painted there. The Avatar wasn't supposed to be back for another five days. This was the worst possible timing. Even now the generals and cabinet were being rounded up.

"It's unfortunate that we missed them," Mai said smoothly. "We'll have to catch up with them later. I didn't know they would be back so early."

"Well, they said something about Katara being in trouble," the Earth King shrugged. "I don't know where they got that idea."

"That's great, because now we get to spend more time with them," Ty Lee quickly jumped in before he started to speculate.

"Suki has been missing them especially," Mai hinted. "Maybe we should go tell her they're back."

"But she wanted us to stay here and protect the Earth King and Bosco," her friend said, biting her lip. "I don't think she wants us interrupting while she's at the spa."

Mai struggled for a good metaphor. "Right, but…they might accidentally run into each other at the spa." She winced internally.

The Earth King was (understandably, for once) perplexed. "But that would be good, wouldn't it? That would be such a nice surprise."

"Because…" Mai cast about, seizing on Ty Lee's earlier teasing accusation. "Suki's such a prude. She might be embarrassed if the boys saw her there."

"Modesty is becoming in a young lady," the Earth King acceded, though he still looked a little confused.

"Right," Ty Lee managed, obviously struggling not to giggle. If she laughed right now, honestly— "But if our friends went back to the house to find them, maybe by the time they go looking for Suki and Katara, the girls will already be done at the spa, so they'll be all ready to hang out."

Mai moved to stick her hands up her sleeves, then remembered she was wearing inferior girly clothes that cinched inconveniently at the wrists. She turned the gesture into a shrug, hoping it hadn't been too awkward. "That is…possible," she said reluctantly.

"Oh, well it's no problem," the Earth King interrupted, pleased. "Here they are now!"

"Thank goodness we're in time!" cried the Water tribe peasant boy, running to them with the little Mudbender girl at his heels—Toph, Mai surmised. The Avatar had apparently found better things to do.

The Earth King blinked. "In time for what?"

The scrimmage that ensued was brief, and cut short far too quickly.

"This fight is over," rang out Azula's voice.

Mai turned, knife in hand, to see the princess on the dais, holding a flame to the terrified-looking Earth King's head. The Avatar's friends immediately halted their attack, surrendering. Once they were disabled Azula shoved the hapless king impatiently to one of the Dai Li agents that had accompanied her.

_"_Get them all out of my sight," she ordered, giving Ty Lee and Mai a nod. "Come back here when they're secured."

The Dai Li led them down to the dungeons of the Palace, where they put the Avatar's friends and the king in a dank cell. Strangely enough, the dungeons were almost comforting. The walls and doors and even the floor were iron, clanking under the Dai Li's feet as though they were back in the Fire Nation. It made sense, Mai supposed, since they probably were built to hold earthbenders.

One of the agents started to shove the bear into an adjoining cell, but Ty Lee stopped him.

"Wait! I'm keeping him!" she said, hugging one of the bear's furry arms. The bear make an odd moaning sound as Mai and the Dai Li exchanged looks. Apparently the agents felt the same away about the silly animal as she did.

"What's that animal doing here? I ordered you to put them all away," Azula said when they got back. She was lounging on the throne, talking to a crestfallen man who, by the looks of it, must have spent at least five hours every day pruning carefully pruning his hair. The thready mustaches of the Earth Kingdom nobles completely mystified Mai. Was it purposeful, or were they just incapable of growing thicker beards?

"Can't I keep him, Azula?" Ty Lee wheedled.

"Whatever." The princess made an impatient gesture. "The Dai Li have new uniforms for you. Get changed, then come back and meet us here. We have work to do. I'm going to go collect Prince Zuko. Once we've got the Palace secured we'll deal with the traitor and the Avatar." She turned to the thread-bearded man. "You have your orders, Long Feng. Get to it."

"Yes, Highness," he said with a stiff bow.

-o-

Little bits and snatches of reflection had managed to sneak through the cracks of Mai's determination not to think about the issue over the course of the last several days, and as she sat on the steps of the royal dais of Ba Sing Se, they all finally piled into a single conclusion:

She did not want to see Zuko.

At all.

Ever.

All the prince brought into her life, she had realized, was complication. Confused feelings, difficult politics, unreasonable expectations from her parents, tension with Azula. The last three years…well, they hadn't been _fun,_ exactly, but there had been decidedly less wire-walking. In fact, they were practically peaceful compared to when she and Zuko had been in courtship. Or so it seemed, looking back from this moment.

Inconveniently, now that she had come to this conclusion, it didn't matter, because Azula was off to get him. From some dungeon. To be another pawn in her crazy machinations.

Wonderful. What could possibly go wrong?

Ty Lee clearly had no such misgivings. Something of much more vital import had monopolized her attention.

"Come on, it's easy," she was saying to her new pet. She had been trying for the last several minutes to teach it tricks, without much success. "You just walk on your front paws instead of your rear ones. Like this."

She demonstrated for the fifth time in as many minutes, then gasped. Mai glanced over to see her friend stuck in a backbend, her hands and feet encased in the floor.

How curious.

"That _is _a nice trick," piped a little voice.

The Avatar's friends and the moron king had somehow magicked themselves out of a metal cell, Mai observed dully. How typical of them. The Water Tribe boy raised his boomerang and the little Mud girl stomped up a boulder, like they expected Mai to attack.

She could pretty well guess what they wanted.

"Just take the bear," Mai said, exasperated. Like it mattered. Like anything mattered.

Ty Lee did not feel the same way. "Mai! How could you let them just walk out with Bosco?" she practically wailed after they had fled.

Sighing, she dragged herself to her feet, looking around for something to chip at the stone encasing her friend's hands and feet. Appealing though the idea was on some levels, it probably wasn't a very friendish thing to do to just leave her friend trapped like that.

"It's just a stupid animal, Ty Lee. You'll get over it." An engraved torch casing seemed like her best bet. Lifting it out of its wall sconce, Mai dumped the burning brand unceremoniously on the stone floor to burn out, and went back over to where Ty Lee was stuck in the floor. This was just so stupid, on so many levels. Her whole life right now was stupid. The entire world was stupid for existing.

"That's terrible. You're heartless," the other girl accused.

Wouldn't that be nice. "If you say so," Mai said dispassionately.

By the time Azula returned, they had only managed to unstick one of Ty Lee's hands.

"I can't leave you alone for half an hour?" she drawled, gesturing curtly to the gaggle of Dai Li agents following her. Seconds later the floor obligingly let go of the acrobat.

Out of the entire hateful world, Mai probably hated benders the most.

"You four, pull up some tables in here. We'll use the throne room as a headquarters for now," Azula was ordering as Mai helped Ty Lee stiffly to her feet. "Get parchment and messenger hawks. And lock down the compound. I don't want anyone entering or exiting the Palace until I say otherwise. Send guards down to the dungeons where the Avatar's friends and the Earth King are being held—the waterbender might attempt to rescue them. Kill her on sight. Mai, Ty Lee—"

"They're already gone," Ty Lee said, sounding actually irate for possibly the first time in her life. "They kidnapped Bosco, and now they're gone."

"Oh?" Surprisingly, Azula's expression was one of sardonic amusement rather than rage. "No matter, the Avatar is dead."

Well, that was easy.

"There's not much his ragtag little friends can do now," she went on. "Both of you go down and check the dungeons anyway. Check the cell for weaknesses and figure out how they escaped. We've captured Uncle, and I wouldn't want him to…go missing."

Azula directed this last to a scruffy Earth Kingdom servant who had tailed along with the Dai Li. He looked away sullenly to stare at the floor. Mai only caught a glimpse of the angry scar that savaged his face and realized he wasn't a servant as she and Ty Lee bowed and turned to obey.

Zuko was gone by the time they came back to the throne room to report the bizarre case of the crumpled metal cell door. In their absence, the earthbenders had literally turned large chunks of the travertine floor into tables. Several large maps and documents were rolled out and held flat with what looked like more bits of the floor, and Dai Li agents and a couple servants were hustling this way and that with hawks and more scrolls and strips of rare burgundy and black fabric that looked as though they had been cut from dusty robes and seat cushions. The Princess was in the thick of it, dribbling wax from a candle onto a scroll casing.

"Mai, come here," Azula ordered, pressing her signet ring into the hot wax then handing the scroll over to the servant, who fumblingly tied it with a burgundy strip of cloth and attached it to a hawk's outstretched claw. A second scroll was thrust toward Mai.

"What's this?"

"A temporary field commission. You're to report directly to me as acting lieutenant colonel until the official surrender of Ba Sing Se, and I'm assigning a squadron of 350 Dai Li agents to your command. Once the army has entered and our occupation is secure, your commission will expire. Don't worry. I won't expect you to report to morning drills once we're finished here." Azula smirked a little.

Mai unrolled the parchment and stared at the briskly-drawn characters, not really reading it. "…Ok?"

"We have seized the tiger-snake's head, but our grip is still tenuous. We must paralyze the body. The population must be kept calm and ignorant until our hold on the city is firm and it is too late for them to rebel. Don't worry about Long Feng or Zuko for now. I'll be keeping them under my eye. I'm going to arrange for the formal surrender and the army's invasion, and ensure the peaceful turnover of the lower rings. I will be busy and I will need Ty Lee with me to keep any troublesome benders cooperative. You will keep the Palace locked down in the meantime."

"I see," said Mai.

The memory of the farcical prisoner exchange was playing vividly through her mind. The thrilling power, the pressing responsibility, all ultimately a façade. From the start, really, because Azula had been there all along, to take over if she had faltered.

This was a little more involved than trading a nutcase for a baby. All the entrances and exits to the compound were to be kept secured, the guards watching over the prisoners monitored, the hundreds of royal staff and the administrative offices kept subdued and continuing in their duties, any attempts at resisting the takeover quelled before they could gain traction. More prisoners would be coming in to be held temporarily, officials and leaders who could be considered a threat to the fragile occupation. Mai was to see to it that the compound was kept running as close to normal as possible, keeping a lid on the fall of Ba Sing Se until the Princess was ready to declare her victory.

Illustrating with lists of names and maps of the compound, Azula explained exactly what she expected over the next few days in black-and-white sentences, curt and concise. It was the same brisk, pedantic voice she had always used when they were kids, blathering on about long-finished wars, and Mai hadn't slept last night. She yawned.

"Pay attention! This is very important," the other girl snapped. "I'm sorry, is this not entertaining enough for you? This is not a 'baby-sitting' mission, Mai. There will be serious repercussions if you fail me this time. Would letting the greatest victory of the war so far slip out of our grasp and being executed by the mud people be less _boring_ to you?"

Mai didn't dare roll her eyes. "Of course not, Princess. It's just…."

_A lot. A soldier's job. A _leader's_ job._

"You were there for the occupation of Omashu. You must have learned something. I know your limits, Mai. Doubting yourself is doubting _my_ judgment. You don't doubt my judgment, do you?"

"No, Princess," Mai said. It was unclear to herself as she said it whether or not she was lying. Not that it mattered. There was no other acceptable answer.


End file.
